Hulkenberg critiques Haas with worrying ‘can’t compete in F1’ like this claim
The German endured a frustrating race in Mexico as he saw his challenge for a points finish fade as Haas’ season-long tyre degradation woes continued, with Hulkenberg slipping out of the top-10 to 13th.
Hulkenberg believes Haas are “paying a price” for a lack of development on their VF-23 car, with the American outfit’s major upgrade at the United States Grand Prix being one of only a few revisions made this season.
“It’s inevitable,” Hulkenberg said. “We’re paying a price for not bringing upgrades, for not finding performance.
“Hopefully it’s a wake-up call for everyone in the factory.
“At this rate you can’t compete in F1.”
Hulkenberg added: "If the old spec had any real good characteristics, it was more or less competitive in the low speed, and this track is obviously low-speed dominated.
"I don't know, I have a feeling that maybe the old-spec would have been better here, but obviously it is a one-way street for us with the future.”
Teammate Kevin Magnussen crashed out due to a "heat-related" suspension failure on a miserable weekend for Haas.
After scoring a solitary point on a Sunday since the Miami Grand Prix in May, Haas have slipped to the bottom of the constructors’ championship, four points behind Alfa Romeo and AlphaTauri.
Speaking ahead of this weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Haas team principal Guenther Steiner admitted: “The key learnings are that we maybe expected a little bit more from the upgrade.
“But then it’s still a little bit up and down because Austin was a Sprint weekend with not a lot of testing, and Mexico had such high altitude.
“We didn’t have enough total downforce last weekend, so I still haven’t come to a full conclusion but the expectations were a bit higher, although it’s giving us the right direction for next year.”
