Haas boss Ayao Komatsu celebrated the ‘perfect race’ run by his team, which earned Nico Hulkenberg a valuable point in the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix.
It was the third top ten result for Haas in the first five stages of the championship, bringing the team closer to RB in the fight for sixth place among the constructors.
Komatsu explained that the result was possible due to ‘brilliant’ optimization during the race and favorable circumstances, such as the retirement of Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas on lap 22.
“It was incredible to get a point again with Nico. In terms of his race, in all sectors, driving, operations, pit stop, it was perfection. We knew exactly what we had to do to get into a good position to get that point, initially against Bottas. Both communication and execution were great. I honestly think we managed to run a perfect race with Nico, and that was brilliant,” he added.
Hulkenberg had anticipated a difficult race due to the characteristics of the Shanghai circuit, but he converted his presence in Q3 into another point.
Asked after the race about these initial expectations, Hulkenberg responded: “It was still difficult, I mean it’s never a walk in the park, but I think it was well managed, well controlled on our side, so very positive and happy to have achieved that point. that was at stake.”
“But it shows that one of the top five cars had a problem and that’s the place we kind of took because of that, otherwise you know it’s not really possible to race them, but it also shows that we need to have a perfect Saturday in the qualifying session and also on Sunday to be able to be where we are,” he said.
Looking ahead to the Miami GP, the German expects another great challenge and another hot race, which will probably influence tire degradation. “We’re going straight into another Sprint format weekend, and it’s always challenging. I think it will be another hot race, so I’m not sure what to expect, I liked it there last year, it was my first time, so I’m happy to be back”, concluded the German driver.
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