The experience Nico Hulkenberg has in the Formula 1 midfield was a key factor in landing a drive with Haas for 2023.
It was announced on Thursday that the German will join the American-registered operation next season alongside Kevin Magnussen.
That sees him replace Mick Schumacher, whose Formula 1 career looks to have come to an end after two seasons.
Speaking to the media, including Speedcafe.com, in Abu Dhabi, team boss Guenther Steiner noted that Schumacher has improved and has made a reasonable account of himself throughout 2022, but he does not have the skillset the team is currently looking for.
“Mick improved a lot during the season,” he noted.
“That’s why it took us so long – we didn’t make this decision, as people think already before the summer.
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“It took us this long to decide what is the best for the team, as I always said.
“He drove hard and he drove good in some races.”
However, while his performances have improved, that alone wasn’t enough to secure Schumacher another season.
After a number of difficult campaigns, Steiner is looking to re-establish Haas firmly in the midfield and for that, he reasoned, Hulkenberg is the better bet.
“Mick doesn’t have the experience that Nico has got,” he said.
“We needed the experience to bring the team forward because I don’t want to say the driver wasn’t ready for the future; the team wasn’t ready for the future.
“I’m not blaming it on Mick that we are where we are.
“We made good progress the first few years, we look at that one as well, to move forward, and then we stagnated in ’19 and 2020 we went down.
“We need to go forward again,” he added.
“That’s the best with experienced people and drivers which have done this before.”
Hulkenberg has more than 180 race starts under his belt for Williams, Force India (Racing Point) and Sauber.
His last full-time season on the Formula 1 grid was 2019 when he drove for Renault alongside Daniel Ricciardo.
The 35-year-old has had a career spent in midfield teams, making him an ideal candidate when it comes to understanding the challenge the team is facing.
Hulkenberg will get his first experience with Haas on Tuesday in the post-season test.
“We can sharpen him up next week and then we also have got the pre-season test in Bahrain,” Steiner noted.
“I think he will be straight on it.”
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