Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg once revealed the 'greatest achievement of his career'
Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg, who will be returning to F1 after two years on the sidelines, admitted that his 24 Hours of Le Mans win back in 2015 stands as the "greatest" achievement of his racing career. As a 27-year-old, he managed to secure the win in the endurance race on his very first attempt. The German, however, holds the unfortunate record of having completed the highest number of F1 Grands Prix without securing a podium finish.
As reported by Autosport, Hulkenberg reflected on his Le Mans win, saying:
"Today is a great achievement, the greatest of my career. It's right after the win, so it's still tough to realise, and I think it will come to me in the next few days. It's an amazing experience for me, coming from the F1 environment and to see a race like Le Mans. I'm really happy I've done it, and even more happy that I've won it straight away with these two guys who are now legends."
Nico’s in his new kit ahead of tomorrow’s test with Haas.
(And @LukeSmithF1 and I are listening intently to what @HulkHulkenberg has to say about his comeback)
#F1 #Haas #Hulkenberg https://t.co/5T9qWLBJ29
He added:
"For our car it was a flawless race. We had great pace, we were mistake-free, with a good flow, a good rhythm. I'd like to thank everybody for pushing like hell for the last couple of months without much sleep - today is the payback and the reward for that."
Hulkenberg will be partnering Kevin Magnussen at Haas in the upcoming season.
Haas team boss shares his expectations from taking on an "experienced driver" for the 2023 season
Haas team principal Guenther Steiner reflected on the 2022 F1 season for the team, describing it as a season that essentially lacked some consistency, even though it was certainly a step up from the previous year. However, he also mentioned that additional consistency throughout the season is what he hopes the team will manage to achieve now that Mick Schumacher will be replaced by Nico Hulkenberg.
As reported by Autosport, Steiner said:
“If you could have more equal [form], it would be better. But as long as you can have some highs, it’s good. It takes a lot of energy out of you, the ups and downs, because you have got these highs where you are flying, and you’ve got these lows where you need to recover. So it’s very difficult. But in the end, it’s better having a rollercoaster than having just downs like 2021.”
guenther steiner https://t.co/6ueOCoYtzk
Speaking about his expectations from Hulkenberg, given that he will be returning to the team with plenty of experience under his belt, the Haas boss added:
“We know we can do it, we just need to do it consistently. That’s what we are working on, and that is one of the reasons why we took an experienced driver. It’s not one thing to make it better, it’s a lot of little things. As a team, we have to improve: we have to improve processes, we have to get people the right job to do, get good people to do things. It’s a lot of small challenges to make this happen. You can see, if everything works, you are up. But if one of the things falls out, you are done. It’s a work in progress.”
Haas finished the 2022 F1 season eighth in the constructors' standings.