Kevin Magnussen grudgingly admits Nico Hulkenberg has had the upper hand on him in 2023

Kevin Magnussen has had a torrid run behind the wheel of the VF-23 this year.

Kevin Magnussen grudgingly admits Nico Hulkenberg has had the upper hand on him in 2023

Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen (Via IMAGO)

The Haas Formula 1 team has had a pretty up-and-down 2023 season. The outfit has struggled with quite a few gremlins on its car and amidst their poor run of form, its driver, Kevin Magnussen has talked about the areas in which he has lacked in comparison to his teammate, Nico Hulkenberg.

The German has had the upper hand over Kevin Magnussen at pretty much every Grand Prix weekend so far and the latter has found it extremely difficult to put the VF-23 through the wringer like Hulkenberg has been able to do. The Dane understands the problems that he has faced this season and is even grateful to have a strong teammate this year.

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Ahead of the upcoming Singapore GP, Magnussen was asked to touch upon his performances compared to his teammates. While talking about the same, he said, as reported by Racingnews365.com, “It’s good to have someone with that much experience when you’re trying to develop a car. When you have an issue and you need a new direction, it’s good to have all this experience in the team.”

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“In terms of the pace, it’s not like I have this problem like: ‘I just can’t drive this car. On Sunday, it’s always fine. It’s just [over that] one lap [in qualifying], sometimes I struggle to get it out [of the car. I have had good qualifyings this year. I qualified P4 in Miami so it’s not like I can’t do it ever. But he seems to be able to drive around the issue a little more often, but I think I’m turning it around,” he added.

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Kevin Magnussen has only scored a couple of points in 2023

Kevin Magnussen (Credits: Imago)
Kevin Magnussen (Credits: Imago)

While Kevin Magnussen has accepted that Nico Hulkenberg has had the upper hand on him this year, the 2023 Drivers standings are also enough to show how much of a struggle the former has had. As things stand, Magnussen has only managed two points in Haas’s VF-23 so far, whereas Hulkenberg has scored nine.

The VF-23 has not proved to be an easy beast to tame this year, but for some reason, Hulkenberg has been able to find solutions and score points whenever the car has proved strong. The ongoing campaign has been nothing short of a huge struggle for Magnussen, especially considering his performances in the 2022 F1 season.

Both the Haas drivers have recently signed contract extensions that will keep them with the Kannapolis-based team until the end of 2024. There were doubts regarding Magnussen getting a contract extension, but now that he has got one, it is his responsibility to repay for the faith Haas has put in him.

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