“A big learning experience” – Nico Hulkenberg found his Aston Martin struggling towards the back-end of the Bahrain grid, capping off a disappointing substitute appearance in place of Sebastian Vettel.
Sebastian Vettel contacted Covid right before the season-opener in Bahrain, allowing Aston Martin to bring in super-sub Nico Hulkenberg.
But it wasn’t a great outing for the fellow German, as he finished P17, the last of the finishing racers. He will now hope to get another opportunity in this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
“The beginning was okay but I was just hanging on. It was tough for me. Obviously, that was always the hardest part of the weekend.
“Once you are out of that mode of running with new fresh tyres and the limitations become more and you have to manage and understand the car a lot more, that was difficult.
“[It was] A big learning experience. We went okay but I tried to overtake someone, out-braked myself a bit into turn one and from there onwards it was a downward spiral.
“I got lapped quite soon and you just fall back and back more. It was what it was.”
Mercedes’ teams struggling
Mercedes engines failed to light up the show, unlike last season, with Aston Martin, McLaren, and Williams also missing out on points. Hulkenberg has highlighted the issues he faced with the car, something his team would be keen to find a solution to with Mercedes.
“We saw also with DRS sometimes I was not catching people. We seemed to be a little bit down on speed on the straights. We have seen that, too.
“In the grip-limited zones we also have some issues with the balance and the front and rear axle limitations.”
