Team boss admits 36-year-old driver will be running old spec at Las Vegas GP

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Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg will be running a different spec on his car compared to teammate Kevin Magnussen at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Team principal Guenther Steiner was previewing the race in Sin City with Haas knowing they need a strong weekend to get off the bottom of the Constructors’ Championship.

Strong results for AlphaTauri and Alfa Romeo in recent weeks have put Haas in a difficult position.

Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda have done brilliantly in recent races, while a double points finish for Alfa Romeo in Qatar was just what the Swiss team needed.

In stark contrast, Haas have scored just one point since the Austrian Grand Prix.

Kevin Magnussen’s tenth-place finish in Singapore was the last time either car finished in the top half of the grid.

That form has to improve if they stand any chance of not finishing bottom of the table for only the second time in their history.

They thought several of their rivals should have been penalised in Austin but the FIA disagreed.

To try and break his own personal duck, Nico Hulkenberg is reverting back to an old set-up in Las Vegas after failing to score a point for Haas since the Sprint Race at the Red Bull Ring.

The 36-year-old German has looked quick in qualifying this year but his car simply can’t maintain that pace in long runs on Sunday.

He’ll be hoping for a change of fortunes this weekend as Vegas could end up being a very unpredictable Grand Prix.

Haas driver Hulkenberg using old spec in Las Vegas

Speaking about the upcoming race, Steiner said: “The main drive behind this was Nico feels that for him the old spec suits him better, and Kevin is the opposite.

“We’ve opted to give them what they want, we have two races to go and nothing to lose, so we’ve tried to do what we can.

“We could discuss gathering data, but we’ve got enough data, it’s a decision based on what each driver likes more than anything else. It puts them in a comfortable position so that they’re as happy as they can be with the car they get.”

Hulkenberg is experienced enough to know what’s best going into the Las Vegas GP this weekend for Haas.

He replaced Mick Schumacher in the winter and his seventh-place finish in Australia would have given the team plenty of confidence for the rest of the season.

His reliability has been impressive and he’s finished 11^th, 13^th and 12^th in the last three races, narrowly missing out on points on each occasion.

He’ll be hoping he can just sneak into the top ten in Nevada and potentially give Haas a chance to lift themselves off the bottom of the table going into Abu Dhabi.