Nico Hülkenberg has a turbulent race in Malaysia: following a failed tyre gamble, a pit lane incident and bad luck with the safety car, the Audi driver finishes without scoring any points
Nico Hülkenberg finished the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia in eleventh place, outside the points. The Audi driver had a turbulent Formula 1 race – including a failed tyre strategy and a scare during a pit stop when the German drove into one of his mechanics.
“Apparently, the spanner got stuck somehow on the mechanic who was working on the front wing,” says Hülkenberg, explaining the incident from his perspective. “So it wasn’t exactly the smoothest pit stop, but I hope he’s all right.”
The mechanic was indeed unharmed, and Hülkenberg bears no blame for the incident: the German had already been given the green light after the tyre change and therefore set off. However, he stopped his R26 immediately, thereby possibly preventing something worse from happening.
The race stewards nevertheless investigated the incident after the race and handed the Audi team a hefty fine of 30,000 euros (20,000 of which was suspended) because it constituted a dangerous situation.
Safety car ruins Audi’s bold strategy
From a sporting perspective, the pit-lane incident had little impact on Hülkenberg, as the Audi team had already made one of their biggest mistakes before the race even started, when they opted for slick tyres. Even before the race had officially started, the German therefore turned back into the pits to switch to intermediates after all.
“To be honest, it was too ambitious to go for slicks,” sums up the 39-year-old. “But the track usually dries out quickly; however, there wasn’t quite enough sun for that today. That’s why it ended up taking quite a long time.”
“But we reacted quickly and rectified the situation promptly.” Because once Hülkenberg had switched back to the intermediates, he was able to “catch up with the drivers on slicks again within one or two laps. And to be honest, it didn’t cost us much; it was practically a gift.”
Subsequently, the Audi driver was involved in a few “great battles” and made up several places before the team decided to switch back to slicks as the track dried out. But the timing was anything but ideal: shortly after the pit stop, Valtteri Bottas in the Cadillac flew off the track.
Hülkenberg admits: “Points were unlikely anyway”
That’s why the safety car had to come out, and that played into the hands of the competition. “Man, I could have bitten the steering wheel at that moment. Honestly, that was really rubbish,” says Hülkenberg, annoyed. “Because I felt brave at that moment – like a hero.”
“And it actually worked quite well,” adds the German, who remains convinced of the success of his strategy: “I think we could have overtaken a few people with an undercut there. But well, unfortunately the safety car had other plans.” The same applied to the final safety car phase following Alexander Albon’s retirement.
Shortly before that, Hülkenberg had closed the gap on Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin whilst on the soft tyres. The Spaniard was still on the harder compound at that point and would probably have been easy prey in the final laps. However, the safety car gave all drivers the chance to fit fresh tyres.
In the closing stages, Lando Norris in the McLaren and Arvid Lindblad in the Racing Bulls then overtook him. “In the end, we simply weren’t strong enough – we obviously lacked the speed to defend the position,” admits the Audi driver.
After all, the ninth place that Hülkenberg briefly held should not obscure Audi’s true strength: “I’d only got into that position in the first place because George and Lando had retired,” recalls the German. “So yes, points were rather unlikely anyway.”
Bortoleto completely out of the running after collision with Sainz
Things went even worse for team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto, however: The Brazilian ultimately finished in 18th place after spinning Carlos Sainz’s Williams and having to serve a ten-second penalty as a result.
“Immediately after the incident, I thought: ‘Oh, he’s cut me off’,” says Bortoleto. “But now that I’ve been able to watch the footage, I know: my wheels simply locked up. He went quite wide on Turn 1, moved back in for Turn 2, and I literally saw the gap right in front of me.”
The Audi driver saw his chance and went for the overtake. “The line was good,” adds the Brazilian. “But the problem was that it was still a little bit wet – which, to be honest, I hadn’t expected. Because that corner has quite a steep camber.”
The Audi driver had assumed the track would be dry, but then hit the wet patch, causing his front wheels to lock briefly. “We were so close together that I ended up making contact with him, spinning him round and causing damage to my car as well.”
