Guenther Steiner issues key update on four driver spots ahead of F1 2024

Pretty happy, as he put it, with his driver line-up, Guenther Steiner has hinted Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg will retain their seats for next year’s championship.

Magnussen returned to the F1 grid in 2022, replacing Haas rookie Nikita Mazepin, while Hulkenberg was signed for this year’s championship after Mick Schumacher failed to shine.

Declaring he was done with rookie drivers, team boss Steiner welcomed his 30-plus line-up, the oldest driver pairing on this year’s grid.

And it’s one he’s likely to continue with into 2024.

“Driver market-wise, I think we are in the moment where we are pretty happy what we have got,” Steiner said as per Motorsport Week.

“Obviously we want to get to announce our drivers as soon as possible so we don’t have to hang around like last year, a long time, telling you guys it’ll be next race and then it gets boring.”

Last season, up against Schumacher in his first season back on the grid, Magnussen was Haas’ star driver while this year Hulkenberg, having been out for three seasons, has emerged as the one to beat.

Although he’s secured just one top-ten result, a P7 at the Australian Grand Prix, he has out-paced Magnussen in qualifying only to be undone by Haas’ lacklustre race strategies.

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The German has six points to his team-mate’s two but Steiner has welcomed their experience in helping the team move forward.

“Yeah, I would say [experience helps],” he said. “And Nico always very outspoken about the problem and what I like is that with the problem we speak about it openly.

“There is no trying to hide, it’s very open. Everybody’s like, ‘Hey, let’s try to find out what can we do to find out more what is happening’.”

The Italian also isn’t expecting any pressure from Ferrari over his line-up.

Ferrari have Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz on the books, both drivers contracted through to the end of the 2024 season but both linked to rival teams.

While rumours have Leclerc moving over to Mercedes, or even Alpine, Sainz has been linked to the Sauber team in the build-up to their partnership with Audi.

“On the Ferrari side, I think in the short to medium term there’s no point to change,” he added. “Just because you’ve got a year like this, it doesn’t mean that you immediately have to jump to someone else.”