Nico Hulkenberg To Start From The Pit Lane For Azerbaijan GP After Haas Set Back

The Haas F1 team has confirmed to their fans that Nico Hulkenberg will be starting the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from the pit lane after the American team were forced to take his car out of parc ferme to make an essential set-up change.

The German driver explained after the sprint race yesterday that the team would need to look at all of the options going into today after he struggled with tyres and grip. He said:

“After the Safety Car, three or four laps and then my tyres were just completely shot.

“I had not much to work with, to fight with. I was just dropping like a stone and I need to look at it, understand it, analyse it. It’s a bit of a question mark at the moment.

“[The tyres] grained so it’s not just no traction, it’s just no grip anywhere. And on a track like here, that’s obviously pretty sketchy and tricky and you feel very exposed.

“So some homework to do with the limited options now looking into tomorrow. We need to see what we want to do.”

Due to a required setup change, Nico will start today's #AzerbaijanGP from the pit lane.#HaasF1 pic.twitter.com/kc7rSHLzzh
— MoneyGram Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) April 30, 2023

Hulkenberg had qualified in seventeenth position for the grand prix today, however, was due to start in sixteenth place as Esteban Ocon will also be starting from the pit lane.

Juan Molina, principal aerodynamicist at Haas, explained to the media that there was an obvious difference between Hulkenberg's car and his teammate, Kevin Magnussen's. He commented:

“Yesterday there was an obvious difference. So the guys have looked at the data and understood where it came from.

“But again, having not much practice, you’re going into the weekend already quite compromised if you don’t get everything right in P1.

"At least for Kevin, he had a very difficult P1, he’s quite happy with the car. In previous races he took a bit more time but now he’s getting there with the car so should be better for the rest of the season.

“At the end of the day it’s how you set up the car, so again, we are learning.

“Nico has been doing not too bad in the previous races also with managing the tyres. But it’s a learning process, we need to give him a bit more time.”