Steiner: Magnussen and Hulkenberg working well and there's respect

After all, Magnussen and Hulkenberg were the protagonists of that 'Suck my Balls' video that went viral on social media a couple of years ago. Clearly, there was no love lost between the pair and as teammates, there was potential for fireworks.

But, after their first race together, in Bahrain, with Hulkenberg replacing Mick Schumacher alongside Magnussen in the American team, Steiner is pleased with the driver pairing so far: “They’re working well together and there is respect between them.

"It’s very good for Kevin to have a teammate with experience and what Nico brings with him is experience. The race engineers clearly feel like they get a lot of information from him after each session, which will bring the race weekend forward, but also overall the race team forward, performance-wise.”

In Bahrain last year, after 'retiring' from F1 for a season, Magnussen made a stunning comeback to finish fifth but this year it was a different story as he labored to 13th at the same venue two Sundays ago.

KMag reflected in the team's preview ahead of the race weekend in Jeddah: “Last year, Saudi Arabia was a strong weekend. Coming away from Bahrain with a fifth place and coming to Jeddah, expectations were high and the pace was good in the car.

"We got a bit unlucky with strategy – the safety car came out at a vulnerable time for us – but we still managed to score a few points and I hope we can be strong here again this year," ventured the 30-year-old Dane, a veteran of 142 Grand Prix starts.

In the sister car, of course, 35-year-old Hulkenberg was an F1 SuperSub for the past three years, doing four races for Racing Point and then Aston Martin after he 'quit' the top flight at the end of 2019 after three fruitless years with Renault.

Last year, he was called in to replace Sebastian Vettel for the first two races, Bahrain and Saudi, thus as in Sakhir he at least knows the new Jeddah Circuit: “The track is unique and special. It’s unbelievably fast given it’s a street circuit and it definitely gives you a huge rush and kick.

"It’s very challenging and technical but I enjoyed it there last year and hopefully I’m going to enjoy it more this year. It’s got very different track characteristics from Bahrain, but then every other track afterwards is also a bit different.

"So it’s going to take longer than two races to understand the car fully and see which characteristics it suits or not. We’re in a ‘work in progress’ situation where things are still very dynamic and are at an early stage and can change a lot," predicted The Hulk, ahead of his 183rd Grand Prix start, which it will be on Sunday in Jeddah.

Ahead of the Saudi Grand Prix, Steiner concluded in his preview: “Jeddah is a little bit different in terms of layout compared to Bahrain but everything that we learned in Bahrain will help us set-up the car better for Saudi Arabia. Hopefully, we get it in a good window and then we can extract the full potential of the VF-23, resulting in points.”