Was Hülkenberg mentioned there?

(Motorsport-Total.com) – Nico Hülkenberg was on course for a tenth place in the Formula 1 race in Azerbaijan for a long time, but in the end the German crossed the line in eleventh place, although two laps before the end Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz crashed, meaning the Haas driver should have finished eighth. What happened?

“It was a good race, it looked promising,” said the Emmerich native to ServusTV. “I think it was P10 before Carlos and Checo had the accident and actually everything was under control and then in the last two laps a lot of things went wrong. A few things happened that I don’t want to go into now. But yes, we lost the race and a point result.

But what did Hülkenberg mean? The 37-year-old lost three positions in a very short space of time. First a Williams driver, Franco Colapinto, before Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes and his team-mate Oliver Bearman slipped through shortly afterwards. The midfield battle was not visible in the TV broadcast due to the exciting battle at the front, but the onboard recordings of the Haas driver clarify things.

Onboard camera: Hülkenberg kisses the wall on lap 48

“Flat tire. I think I touched the wall,” Hülkenberg radioed to his team at the end of lap 48. At this point, Hülkenberg was still about 2.5 seconds ahead of Colapinto and he was indeed too far to the right at the start of turn 15 and kissed the guardrail.

“Ok Nico, the pressure still looks good,” assured racing engineer Gary Gannon. “Switch on push mode, the tire pressures are OK,” he added later. But Colapinto had already quickly overtaken Haas and then made the final overtaking maneuver before turn three on lap 49.

The telemetry data shows that after Hülkenberg kissed the wall on lap 48, he lost almost two seconds on his original time on the way to the start and finish line. The driving error itself only cost around two tenths. Was Hülkenberg also just in the wrong engine mode?

What the so-called “in button” could be

“I’m already in push mode,” he replies on the radio to Gannon’s request, who responds: “In button off. You have to turn off the In button, it’s currently activated, so deactivate it.” Hülkenberg replies: “It’s not working.”

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Nico Hülkenberg with his race engineer Gary Gannon before the start of the race in Baku

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According to telemetry data, Hülkenberg lost a second on the straights of the first sector on lap 49, which gave Colapinto an easy pass before turn three. It is possible that the German pressed the so-called “in button” after hitting the wall because he thought the tyre was gone. The button could mean that you are coming into the pits, i.e. on an “inlap”, which in turn led to the Haas switching to a slower engine mode.

In sector two, his race engineer then gave the all-clear: “The car is OK now, two more laps when you’re over the finish line.” And immediately the speed on the straights was back, but the position against the Williams had already been lost.

Perez-Sainz crash: Hülkenberg reacts too slowly

The next mishap occurred one lap later, when Hülkenberg encountered the crashed Perez and Sainz in the first sector and had to drive over various pieces of debris. At this point, only the yellow flag was out for this mini-sector, before the monitor showed green again after the accident site. But Hülkenberg was still so slow that Hamilton and his teammate Bearman came up from behind and overtook him in turn three.

“I hit the debris with the front wing,” the German radioed after the incident. “We’re checking it,” Gannon replied before the virtual safety car was activated, while Hülkenberg was now behind Colapinto, Hamilton and Bearman in the castle section of lap 50.

“Damn it, how can they not?” Hülkenberg curses on the team radio before his race engineer intervenes: “Virtual Safety Car. VSC.”

It seems as if Hülkenberg had expected the virtual safety car to have been activated already, given the severity of the accident, which ultimately led to Hamilton and Bearman seeing the green flag sooner. George Russell, chairman of the GPDA drivers’ association, was also surprised after the race: “I was shocked that the safety car or the VSC had not come out earlier.”

Hülkenberg apologizes to Haas: “I let you down”

In the end, there is only disappointment for Hülkenberg, as the radio traffic after the finish line makes clear. “Checkered flag, Nico. Checkered flag. Press the in button. I’m sorry, Nico,” says race engineer Gannon. Hülkenberg replies: “You don’t have to be sorry, I have to apologize. I let you down, I let us down today. That was actually one of our best races of the year.” Gannon replies: “Yes Nico, it’s brutal, but we’re all in the same boat.”

To make matters worse, the German overtook teammate Oliver Bearman after crossing the finish line, even though the track was still under VSC conditions. The stewards issued a warning for this incident.

In the interview afterwards, Hülkenberg can at least say that his performance was significantly better after an uncharacteristically weak qualifying on Saturday: “I was able to turn it around and basically cracked the nut,” he says at ServusTV. “Because Friday and yesterday I didn’t feel comfortable in the car.”

“But today I somehow managed it and still found a bit of harmony and performance in the car, which is of course nice and good and important. Unfortunately a tick, a day, too late, but well, it is what it is. Nevertheless, I think I can be satisfied with the race for long stretches.