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Nico Hulkenberg has conceded to making a horrendous error at the start of the Qatar Grand Prix he knew immediately had “killed” his race.
Haas driver Hulkenberg was due to start the 57-lap event at the Lusail International Circuit from 14th on the grid but lined up 12th in the empty slot that should have been occupied by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
Sainz, however, was unable to take the start due to a fuel system issue with his SF-23.
It resulted in the stewards handing Hulkenberg a 10-second time penalty on the basis of the “severity of the infringement compared to precedents in which cars were out of position by only small margins”, with the sanction in those incidents only five seconds.
The 36-year-old German served the penalty at a pit stop, sending him plummeting down the order from which he failed to recover, ultimately taking the chequered flag 16th of the 17 classified finishers.
Asked whether he was confused by the situation with the empty grid slot in front of him, Hulkenberg replied: “I guess so, yeah”, before honestly conceding “I just f***** up big time. I can’t say much more.
“I realised (the mistake) before I stopped but you can’t reverse (the car). The damage was done. It was obviously a big mistake from me which killed our race before it had really started.
“It’s very frustrating, disappointing, and I need to understand it.”
Hulkenberg doubted the pace of his VF-23 would have been good enough anyway for a top-10 finish, with the team now bidding farewell to the current specification of car, with a new one to be rolled out for the next race in the United States.
“The end of this spec car ended worse than it started, so we’re thankful to see the end of it,” said team principal Guenther Steiner.
“We’ll come back in Austin with the upgrade and hopefully it works.
“At least we know we’re doing things to move forward, we’re not sitting here waiting for the end of the season. We will work hard until then.”
With Kevin Magnussen 13th, 11 seconds behind a top-10 finish, Steiner conceded the race overall meant it “was not a good day”.
Lamenting Hulkenberg’s incident, in particular, he added: “Nico starting in the wrong grid spot at the beginning didn’t help at all.
“Once you get 10 seconds behind at the start of the race where we are, you have no chance. We fought but it wasn’t enough.”
Steiner’s woes were compounded by the fact Alfa Romeo duo Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu finished eighth and ninth respectively, claiming enough points to drop Haas to ninth in the constructors’ standings.
