F1 star wants investigation into 'unhealthy' problem as fears raised before Spanish GP
An investigation has been called for before the Spanish Grand Prix takes place.
Nico Hulkenberg has asked Haas to launch an investigation into his car before the Spanish Grand Prix, describing the vehicle as “not fully healthy” as attention turns to Barcelona. A gamble on the wet tyres saw both Hulkenberg and his team-mate Kevin Magnussen fly through the field only to finish 11th and 12th respectively in Montreal last time out.
The German driver felt that with several teams having issues at the Canadian GP, points should have been picked up by Haas, only for an underlying issue to scupper their pace and fail to capitalise on DNFs for Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez.
He also lamented a lack of practice time on Friday in a rain-soaked weekend, but pinpointed aerodynamic inefficiencies as the reason why both he and Magnussen struggled to keep pace with the pack once the Montreal track dried.
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"The missed opportunity was [Saturday] and generally all weekend,” Hulkenberg said. "The problem we've had on my car - that somehow it's not fully healthy, I think, on the aero side or somewhere.
"I still feel after the race that I have a problem with it, that is not fully at 100 per cent where we're supposed to be. But you know, obviously, you do what you can with what you have. But obviously, also not having the Friday, not having time to react after that is... it's just altogether a difficult weekend with the circumstances."
With two weeks between races, Hulkenberg has put pressure on Haas to identify and fix the problem with their car before taking to Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
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Calling for an investigation before the Spanish GP, he said: "The whole weekend, especially on my side of the garage, and 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.
"Everything that happened, and then quali, cost us a better result because I'm sure with a better quali that we normally have, if we start further ahead, we would have scored points. So it's kind of a missed opportunity."
Hulkenberg is set to leave Haas at the end of the season and seemingly has no problem throwing down the gauntlet to his engineers, with the 36-year-old heading to Audi ahead of their debut season in Formula One.
He has, however, already claimed that there are no “weird or awkward” feelings among the team despite his imminent departure. “For the moment I'm fully focused on the season with Haas and everything and next year, like I said, it's all in theory and still quite far away, so it's not weird or awkward or anything,” he insisted.
