“It’s just hell when you haven’t driven a Formula 1 car for a year,” says Kevin Magnussen about the Jeddah challenge. The circuit is considered one of the most difficult and dangerous in Formula 1, but for two drivers it offers a very special pitfall.
We are talking about Magnussen and Nico Hülkenberg, who just a few weeks ago would not have thought that they would be starting in Saudi Arabia today. And the two notice that, especially physically. “I think this will be the toughest race of my career,” says Hülkenberg on “ServusTV”, referring primarily to the condition of his neck.
Because in the “washing machine” (O-Ton Hülkenberg) Jeddah, he is exposed to very special loads, because there are many fast corners that are taken at full throttle or almost full throttle. “It’s really a violent roller coaster,” says the German. “The course really takes a lot out of you, it’s very demanding. It’s really good for your substance.”
And if you don’t have the level of fitness of a regular Formula 1 driver, then you go into the Grand Prix with some concern, as Magnussen admits. Although the Dane and his German fellow sufferer are fit and in good shape, the power of a Formula 1 car is not that easy to simulate.
Magnussen: No more power in Q3
“If only I had gone with Mathias one time or another,” jokes Hulkenberg about missed fitness sessions with his colleague Mathias Lauda. “But you can’t make up for that. Now I have to suffer and fight my way through.”
Meanwhile, his colleague Magnussen is quite happy that he had a few problems with the car in practice and didn’t get to drive much. “Otherwise my neck would have been through before qualifying,” he laughs. It was only like that in Q3. “I just couldn’t drive anymore,” he says. “It’s really hard.”
Magnussen had to support his head on the neckrest, even though he lost some feeling in the car and wasn’t looking in the right direction. “But I had to do it because otherwise my neck wouldn’t have held out,” he says. “I think the car would have been good enough for fifth place, but it’s only tenth as it is.”
Hülkenberg: Always had problems with my neck
His problem: The Haas driver drove 24 laps in two hours in qualifying, on Sunday the course has to be circled 50 times. He’s hoping the slightly slower pace will help in the race and that his physio Thomas can “hopefully work his magic”.
Hülkenberg, for whom it is “the story of my life”, as he says, faces the same problem. “Even when I was active, I always had problems with my neck,” he says. “First of all, it was kind of too long and I think I got a pretty heavy head somehow. I’ve always suffered, and now especially.”
In addition, the Jeddah Corniche Circuit is one of the few that is driven counter-clockwise. “That makes it even harder,” the Aston Martin driver knows. “I have to get a massage and I have to fight my way through it tomorrow” – with one goal: “My aspiration is to just get through, survive, collect data, help the team and get home unscathed.”