F1: Nico Hulkenberg's Haas lost 'a lot of downforce' after contact with Esteban Ocon
Nico Hulkenberg of Haas 5 Mar 2023
Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg admits it was tough to learn much from the opening F1 race in Bahrain after damaging his car on the first lap.
The German was pleased to qualify in 10th position on Saturday, but unfortunately he made contact with Esteban Ocon's Alpine on lap one, which saw him drop down to 14th.
At Hulkenberg's first pit stop, Haas opted note to replace his front end as the damage did not appear to be severe.
However, the damage was enough to cause problems with tyre degradation and downforce, which convinced Haas to replace the nose of his car at his second stop.
The setbacks were too significant to overcome in the end and Hulkenberg had to settle for a 15th-place finish.
"A tricky race, especially the first half," said Hulkenberg.
"Apparently I had some contact with someone on Turn 1 or Turn 2 on lap one, which I didn't even really notice.
"I was trying, I was a bit squeezed in Turn 1, I was trying to avoid everyone, but apparently obviously there was some contact and then consequently some damage which was very compromising to my race because I lost a lot of downforce. It's like going to a fight but without weapons!
"So that's a bit frustrating and I think I had quite some stuff missing from the front wing and lost a lot of load with that, and grip of course.
"It made the first half of the race very, very tough. I was just going through my tyres like a hot knife through butter.
"I think in the middle of the race we decided there's no point continuing like that, so I pitted for a new front wing. Vicious circle then, lots of blue flags, it was just going backwards from there."
He added: "I was running around with a damaged car, which had a lot less downforce than it should have had as a healthy car.
"I was very relieved when we pitted it for the new front wing, and the car suddenly came back to being normal. But by then I had lost so much ground already that it was tough to recover.
"So first half not much to learn, because that was not the real car. The second half the race for sure I take my learnings from there. Which is for me, my feeling, my findings and emotions about that, and I'll process those, and regroup in two weeks."
