10 Nico Hulkenberg
- RE-ENTRY
A surprise? Perhaps, but the German has earned his place, despite having to struggle with a severely flawed car, thanks to a series of strong qualifying efforts and pouncing on opportunities across the races in which Haas was not so severely hampered. There was rust to shake off after three years out, save for a handful of COVID-enforced cameos for Racing Point/Aston Martin, but Hulkenberg immediately broke into Q3 in his first race back in the saddle in Bahrain.
A shame, then, that Haas’s 2023 car was completely incompatible with the Pirelli tyre range, ensuring that the VF-23s would regress in race trim. His defensive efforts in Australia were excellent while warding off Lando Norris to claim a season-best seventh; had the last-gasp madness shaken out differently, he was within a sniff of a long-awaited podium. And, without a red-flag infringement in qualifying in Montreal, he’d have started on the front row alongside Max Verstappen.
Austria was the highlight, with two stunning qualifying efforts to secure eighth for the grand prix and fourth for the sprint. In the latter, he climbed to second before stabilising in sixth to show what Haas could be capable of, were it not so rubber-hungry.
Overall, the stats don’t lie: Hulkenberg outqualified team-mate Kevin Magnussen by 15-7 and outraced him by 13-9. Having chosen to roll back to the initial car design instead of persisting with the Austin upgrades, Hulkenberg put his car eighth on the grid for the Abu Dhabi finale, outqualifying Sergio Perez and Pierre Gasly. JBL
9 Oscar Piastri
+ NEW ENTRY
Remember how Piastri arrived in F1 under substantial pressure following the court case over his 2023 services last year? Well, not that and little else seemed to faze the 22-year-old, who demonstrated wisdom beyond his years across his first campaign.
During McLaren’s struggles
