Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: Race Recap

Hulkenberg started from eighth place on Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tires but unfortunately relinquished ground on the opening lap, slipping to 12^th position. The German ran a conventional two-stop strategy, coming in on lap 14 for White hard tires, before making another stop on lap 33 for another set of the hard compound. Hulkenberg took the checkered flag in 15^th.

Magnussen started the evening from 17^th place on the grid, also on medium tires, and maintained position through the opening lap. The Dane ran an off-set tire strategy, pitting after just four laps to switch onto hard tires, before coming in again on lap 22 for one more set of hard rubber. Magnussen completed the season finale in 20^th place.

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team finishes the 2023 season in 10^th position in the Constructors’ Championship.

Up front World Champion Max Verstappen cruised to his 19^th victory of the season – extending his own record – ahead of Charles Leclerc and George Russell.

Kevin Magnussen:

“I think the only positive today is that it was the last race. We can close this season now and look forward to next year. It’s not been a good year for us, we haven’t developed at the rate we should’ve, or at all. We started the year in an okay position, but we lost out to the competition in the development race. It’s going to be a big winter for us to catch up, but I believe we can do it.”

 

Nico Hulkenberg: 

“The positives for me are how I’ve felt during this season. My hunger to drive, to be competing in Formula 1, be back in the competition, that’s been really fun and good. Even with the difficult Sundays, I’ve been enjoying it and I’m hungry for more, so that’s positive news. Otherwise, today was the story of the season, we just don’t have enough pace. Degradation wasn’t necessarily the problem today, it was just pace, we couldn’t keep up with the faster cars. We’ve put it to bed now and hopefully we’ll have some better tools next year.”

 

Guenther Steiner, Team Principal:

“It’s been a tough season for us, which started well but didn’t get any better, as everyone else got better. We ended up fighting all season, so now we need to work hard over the winter to get a better car out there as there are a lot of things within this team that are good. We’ve got a race team which is always ready to race, and a team who wants to do well, we just need to get better with the performance of the car, then we will be okay. It’s not an easy task but everyone is rolling their sleeves up and working hard to achieve it.”

 

Today's Data

Event: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Sunday November 26
Location: Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi
Layout: 5.281-kilometer (3.281-mile), 16-turn circuit
Weather: Clear
Air Temps: 27.2 degrees Celsius (80.9 degrees Fahrenheit)
Track Temps: 34 degrees Celsius (93.2 degrees Fahrenheit)
Race Winner: Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing
Team Result: Nico Hulkenberg – Started 8^th / Finished 15^th (Running – completed 58/58 laps)
Kevin Magnussen – Started 17^th / Finished 20^th (Running – completed 57/58 laps)