Hulkenberg was quick on wets in the early stages in Montreal
Nico Hulkenberg says the Canadian GP was “intense” and “sketchy” after he survived a tricky race to earn 11th place for Haas.
Hulkenberg was beset by an aerodynamic issue over the course of the weekend that compromised him in qualifying and saw him start 17th.
Like team mate Kevin Magnussen he started on full wet tyres, which helped him to move up to seventh in the early laps, before his pace fell away and he had to switch to inters.
Attrition ahead in the late stages helped him to the edge of the points, but he had no regrets about the strategy.
“It paid off,” he said of the call to start on wets. “I don’t know, the first maybe 10 laps we were gaining a lot and picking up a lot of positions, but then eventually it stopped raining and it dried out and it kind of got reversed or undone, all the work we did. A race with so much stuff happening.
“I think we were a bit unlucky with the first safety car. I think timing to go on slicks was good, not on the early side, because it was difficult in sector one, mostly.
“An interesting race, very intense, very sketchy. And a couple of scare moments too. A couple of near in the wall. But I guess that’s kind of normal in these conditions.”
His near misses included a big drift at Turn 2 at around half distance, which he managed to catch.
“There were a couple of moments, I have it, no, I have it, no!,” he said. “I let go of the steering because it was full opposite lock, and I was about, I think, to grab for the clutch, and then somehow it stopped, and I was able to catch it. But, yeah, that was one of them.
“And almost one out of Turn 4 earlier, when it was still more wet, I lost it there, but still managed to get it.”
Hulkenberg was adamant that the aero issue remained in his car throughout.
“The missed opportunity was yesterday, and generally all weekend the problem we’ve had on my car that somehow it’s not, I think, fully healthy on the aero side, or somewhere,” he said.
“I still feel after the race that I have a problem with it, that is not fully in at 100% where we’re supposed to be.
“But obviously you do what you can with what you have. Also not having the Friday, not having time to react after that, it’s just all together a difficult weekend with the circumstances.”
Expanding on the aero issue he said: “I think the whole weekend, especially on my side of the garage, from lap one, I didn’t feel right and happy with the car.
“And we need to investigate what was going on, because that really compromised our weekend, and obviously everything that happened, and then quali cost us a better result. I’m sure with a better quali that we normally have, if we started further ahead, we would have scored points.”
Adam Cooper F1 