Nico Hulkenberg didn’t think about DQ when marshals pushed him back to continue in F1 Brazil GP, as Oliver Bearman reckons the penalty was harsh.
Haas’ Hulkenberg fell victim to a rare disqualification rule in F1 Brazil GP. The German had an off after his pit stop. He was stationery for a while when the marshals ran in to recover the car. But instead they pushed him back on the track and he could drive off.
That resulted in a black flag for Hulkenberg, who couldn’t re-start after the red flag. The stewards noted that he took assistance from the marshals to continue which is not allowed. Post-race, he was officially disqualified from the grand prix result, which last happened in 2007 Canadian GP.
That time, it was Felipe Massa and Giancarlo Fisichella, who were shown the black flag and were disqualified as they left the pitlane under red light. Hulkenberg, meanwhile, didn’t think of a black flag when he continued on, but saw the fun side of marshals partying after helping him to continue on.
“I think it was going OK on the inters actually, I was in a train with Pierre and Fernando for a long time, before we pitted,” said Hulkenberg to media. “So I think we were going OK – it wasn’t dreadful, but it wasn’t amazing either. Just after the pit stop, our race somehow… obviously it finished pretty quickly and it all went south from there.
“They [the marshals] came out, they pushed me off and they were really happy with themselves. They were partying and pushing me on and saying, ‘come on, go, let’s go, this race isn’t finished’. In that moment, you don’t really think, you don’t care to be honest as well. You just continue and you deal with the consequences later obviously.
“It was definitely amongst the toughest conditions that I’ve raced in, incredibly low grip, a very, very narrow window, very hard to make no mistakes. It was very tough,” summed up Hulkenberg, as Haas returned empty handed after Bearman finished outside the points as well after a difficult run.
The Brit had replaced ill Kevin Magnussen for the whole weekend after the Dane fell sick on Thursday after his media session. It was a first time for Bearman in wet conditions and first proper track to drive the Haas machinery after two street tracks running. He did an okay job in sprint race, but the grand prix was difficult after silly mistakes from his side.
He had some offs, which included a hit on the back of Franco Colapinto in the corner. The Argentine wasn’t hurt as much, but Bearman lost places and then was handed a 10s time penalty as well, which he felt was harsh on the part of the stewards. He admitted to making mistakes, but was happy to learn the car in tricky and slippery conditions.
“It is tough because I didn’t deliver a very good race and then made a lot of mistakes,” said Bearman to media. “If you look at the grid and the amount of people that actually finished the race first of all and the people that didn’t, of course to score points, I needed to stay on track the whole time, unfortunately I didn’t do that. I did silly mistakes.
“So yeah, it is definitely tough conditions but I still wasn’t good enough. I feel less confident in the car on the inters, especially the high-speeds. The car is bit less predictable which is never a good feeling in slippery conditions. Everyone has similar issues, it is tough to really say where we stand on wets, it is less about the car and a bit about the whole package.
“But yeah, it was really tough one. I thought it [penalty] was a little bit harsh. I hit him, he didn’t even feel me like I hardly touched him. Nothing happened to him, I lost 10s and then I got a 10s penalty, so it was really harsh.
“Overall, it has been a crazy weekend for sure, especially with the weather and then the format, it has been impressively strange. But it is good for me to learn these things, racing in the wet is very rare, I tried to make the most of all of them, take everything for next year,” summed up Bearman.
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