Haas scored all but one of its 12 points in the first five races of the year, with a best of seventh place earned by Hulkenberg in the high-attrition Australian GP.
The German said that once rivals began to develop their cars Haas slipped back and its issues – notably with overheating tyres in races – became more obvious.
"Obviously, it was a process, and signs were there early in the season," said Hulkenberg when asked by Autosport about the team’s frustrating year.
"But we got away with it early in the season because other people also were struggling more.
"And then once they cleaned up and then brought some real developments, that's when we really started to pay the penalty.
"The last or the second half of the season has been really tough. I think there was only an opportunity to score a point or two for me in Singapore, which we missed by the wrong strategy call.
"Apart from that we just never had the pace to do it. Even when there were a lot of cars dropping out, we were just too far away from it.
"So of course that's not great. That's why we need to do better."
Source: Autosport