After failing to reach the podium during the 2016 Formula 1 season, Nico Hulkenberg has resorted to just “laughing” about his bad luck, as he is tired of being frustrated.
The Sahara Force India F1 Team driver has failed to reach the podium during his F1 career that started in 2010 with Williams Martini Racing, despite earning a pole position for the 2010 Brazilian Grand Prix. As well as his brief spell with Sauber F1 Team in 2013.
With a mixture of poor reliability and bad luck, this has stopped Hulkenberg from delivering a top three finish. During the Brazilian Grand Prix last season, a potential podium slipped from his grasp, after hitting debris from Kimi Raikkonen‘s car, along with suffering a puncture later in the Grand Prix.
Reflecting on that most recent frustration, Hulkenberg said, “Of course it was disappointing. But I am tired of being frustrated about it, so I just laugh about it now. It is just – I don’t know why. It is not meant to happen.
“It was one of these days where I did a pretty good job. The car was good, everything was there, but unfortunately some debris cut the tyre and the rest is history.”
The German, who will be moving to Renault Sport Formula 1 Team this season, doesn’t believe in bad luck, with there always being a reason for the outcome.
“I don’t believe in these things,” said Hulkenberg. “I believe in hard work and good decisions and the rest it will come or it doesn’t.
“There is always a reason for it – if you go to each incident or case. There is always a reason for it. Some could have been avoided, some were mistakes – because mistakes happen like misfortune in Sao Paulo. But at the end of the day, it is what it is.
“It is a shame because I would have liked obviously to have scored a podium for myself and the team of course, but it hasn’t happened!”
Last season, Hulkenberg got in the mindset of feeling he was an unlucky driver, with five retirements to his name. Four more than Force India team-mate Sergio Perez.
“There are a few cases where for sure it happened,” added Hulkenberg. “We were just unlucky, I don’t know why.
“But it is not that I think about it and cry that I am always the unlucky one. It is just life, hopefully it returns the other way a favour in the next few years.”
