A fire, a disqualification, a race abandonment and no points: Nico Hülkenberg and Audi experienced a true horror show at the Formula 1 weekend in Miami. Ex-F1 driver Timo Glock puts his finger in the wound and says: Things cannot continue like this.
As a new team, Audi has to overcome a few more challenges than its established competitors this Formula 1 season. The Ingolstadt-based team only achieved this to a limited extent in the first four races of the year.
The most recent example was the weekend in Miami. There, the Emmericher’s R26 burst into flames before the sprint even started. Meanwhile, teammate Gabriel Bortoleto was disqualified after the sprint race. The next disaster awaited on Sunday. Here Hülkenberg had to give up again after technical problems with his car – so he only saw the finish line in two out of four races this year.
This is how Hülkenberg explains the Audi debacle
“Unfortunately I had a little contact with Carlos, I think, in turn one. This caused damage to the front wing. Unfortunately, we had to stop at the end of lap one for a new wing. Of course, that throws you backwards massively. Later in the safety car phase we had some problem that unfortunately didn’t allow us to continue driving,” Hülkenberg later described on the “Sky” microphone what all went wrong.
Immediately after the end of the race, the German didn’t know exactly why the technology went on strike again and didn’t allow him to continue driving. “Of course the boys will now look at that and analyze it,” said Hülkenberg, who summed up the three days in Miami as positively as possible with the words: “Overall, it was a character-building weekend for us.”
The veteran judged that the pace wasn’t bad. “But we just have to implement it somehow, get it on the asphalt, see the flag and get the cars through,” he complained about the recurring failures.
Ex-Formula 1 driver takes Audi to task
Former Formula 1 driver and current “Sky” expert Timo Glock broadly agreed with Hülkenberg’s assessment, but chose clearer words.
“Since the beginning of the year, there have already been three race starts where a car was missing for technical reasons. You have to sit down and do your homework now. You can’t afford that. Sure, it’s the first year, you can’t forget that. But you still have to minimize this error rate significantly. The team has to work on it,” said Glock, taking the team with the four rings to task.
