How Haas team principal played 'hard to get' while signing Nico Hulkenberg

Haas F1 team principal Guenther Steiner has said that he wanted to see the hunger in Nico Hulkenberg before signing him for the drive in 2023 to replace Mick Schumacher.

Despite Schumacher's improved performances, Hulkenberg replaced his young compatriot after the former suffered a series of costly crashes last season. Steiner has said that as Hulkenberg was out of the seat for three years, it wasn't straightforward to choose him.

On the Sky Sports podcast, he said:

"Yeah, that's one of the things. Those were the times when I rang him once. I wasn't really sure what we wanted to do yet. So I just wanted to see if he's available, how big his hunger is, and how much he wants to return to the sport because he was out of a full-time drive for three years, which is a long time.

"Obviously, he did a few races but full-time drive. I was like, 'How much does he want to get back?' I don't know how he played it, but for a while, he didn't call. I think in the beginning, he thought it was he couldn't see what I was doing, and later he thought, 'I want to go back to F1'."

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"Last year, Haas F1 was very close to the cost cap" - Haas team boss

Guenther Steiner has said that owing to Mick Schumacher's crashes in 2022, they were quite close to the cost cap and could not develop their car much.

He said:

"It has a big impact on a small team, but it also now has an impact even if it was a bigger team because with the cost cap in place, this is money that you cannot develop your car. You don't develop your car, you don't go faster and everyone gets frustrated.

"Last year, Haas F1 was very close to the cost cap and the $2m; it simply doesn't go into development because you cannot make it up. Therefore, it is so frustrating because you cannot go away and find another $5m in sponsorship - even if you find it, you cannot spend it anyway."

The Haas team boss added:

"The buck stops with me. You have to say 'this is what we did'. I need to fix this for the team like I expect every team member to fix the area he or she is responsible for."

The American team have made a good start in 2023, scoring in two out of the first three races of the season.