Gunther Steiner explains why Haas won’t run with rookie driver pair again 

The Haas F1 team had been a hub for young drivers up until the 2021 season. Until then, the American team used to hire almost exclusively young drivers with racing potential that could be harnessed for future prowess. However, this could not come to fruition as Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher were both let go for performance-related issues.

With the hirings of Nico Hulkenberg in 2023 and Kevin Magnussen making a return in 2022, the pairing is one of the most experienced partnerships on the grid. Haas team principal Gunther Steiner has said that the handling of two young drivers would be very hectic, which is why experience is better for them.

I mean, I think we learned enough to say that two rookies is more than a handful. It would be very difficult.

Gunther Steiner said, as reported by motorsportweek.com

Even the reserve driver for the Haas outfit is the experienced Pietro Fittipald, who himself has had a taste of an F1 car, racing twice and replacing Romain Grosjean on the team. Haas’s current driver pairing is pretty close knit albeit Nico Hulkenberg’s higher performance in qualifying. Haas is not doing as good as it has in the past though, despite claims by Steiner that progress has been promising.

Kevin Magnussen rues dismal 2023 season for Haas

Haas has always had budgeting issues, with the problems becoming extremely evident in 2021 when Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin had no upgrades brought to their car to save up for the following years of the sport.

Now, Haas was again affected by the issues as they failed to improve their position and finished 2023 as the least-scoring team in the whole F1 grid. Kevin Magnussen said there were no highlights to the season for him, although he was happy for every point that the team did score.

There's not been any great highlights I would say, unfortunately. But I think the races where we scored points have been quite… There have been races where I've been extremely happy with a P10, which, you know, just shows what kind of season we've had.

Magnussen said, via formula1.com

Kevin Magnussen scored only a quarter of the team’s points, with the rest contributed by his teammate Nico Hulkenberg. The Dane will get a chance to prove himself in 2024, with Haas promising to improve drastically by next year.

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