Hulkenberg was signed for 2023 to switch the accident-prone Mick Schumacher, who scored factors in his second season of F1 but in addition confirmed an alarming tendency to price the workforce excessive restore payments.
This adopted a three-year spell the place Hulkenberg was typically known as upon as a super-sub at Racing Level and Aston Martin, leaping into the automobile at brief discover throughout three separate COVID-19 diagnoses.
In 2020, Hulkenberg stepped in for Sergio Perez on the Silverstone workforce for the British and seventieth Anniversary grands prix at Silverstone, qualifying third for the latter and ending seventh. He additionally changed Lance Stroll for a race that 12 months on the Nurburgring.
The German was additionally known as up at first of 2022 to cowl Sebastian Vettel within the opening two races of that season.
Reflecting on his determination to signal Hulkenberg, Steiner defined that he feared the Rhinelander would want time to totally reacquaint himself with the day-to-day work as an F1 driver – however his anxieties had been shortly relieved.
“I have been fairly, fairly impressed. We took him for one cause, as a result of we all know we are able to drive a race automobile. The doubt was after three years as not a full-time driver, how lengthy does it take him to catch up?” Steiner defined.
“It did not take him any time as a result of he was there from day one, which is superb. It is truly very spectacular, but in addition as a human being, he tries to assist the workforce and that is what we needed with the expertise, that is what I at all times mentioned.
Nico Hulkenberg, Haas F1 Crew and Guenther Steiner, Crew Principal, Haas F1 Crew
Picture by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
“He was six or seven instances in Q3 out of [the first] 11 races – that is not too shabby, you realize? And he is bought 9 factors, so within the race he is fairly good.
“It is the automobile that is not adequate, so we have to work on the automobile – I do not suppose we have a driver downside. The workforce may be very pleased with Nico, personally as properly.”
Increasing on this, Steiner defined that Hulkenberg had immersed himself within the workforce shortly and developed robust working relationships from the get-go.
He added that the 2009 GP2 champion has been capable of lean on his giant amount of expertise to take care of the harder moments, having recognised that serving to to construct Haas up wouldn’t be a short-term mission.
“To begin with, he stunned me how fast he was on the ball, how fast he was built-in throughout the workforce. It was fairly superb how he instantly understood individuals,” Steiner mentioned.
“However once more, we’re speaking expertise and he was doing this for a very long time. However it’s additionally how he goes about racing, he goes about it in the suitable approach and places in the suitable effort – not making an attempt to overdo it, you realize?
“He is aware of precisely what he must do. It is the expertise – [he knows] it is not chocolate, it is not candy to make, so it takes a while.”