Nico Hülkenberg admits that his Renault F1 Team “didn’t have a points worthy car” in the 2019 Austrian Grand Prix as the German struggled home a disappointing thirteenth, one place behind his team-mate.
Throughout the Austrian weekend, Renault appeared to struggle for pace, particularly compared to nearest rival and Renault customer, McLaren. While the top Renault-powered car of Lando Norris qualified sixth, the works Renault of Hülkenberg could do no better than a fifteenth place starting position.
In the race, neither Hülkenberg nor team-mate Daniel Ricciardo were able to challenge the points paying positions and now slip twenty points behind McLaren in the constructors’ championship.
“We can’t be happy with this weekend,” said Hülkenberg. “We had multiple issues on the car today and it made it hard work out there. We didn’t have a points worthy car today and we didn’t have the pace to get by anyone during the middle or latter stages.
“Over the years, Austria has proved to be quite a particular circuit and one we don’t tend to do so well at. We’ll use this week off, dive into the data, and see what’s going on to make some improvements ahead of Silverstone.”
Having scored points on just three occasions during the opening nine races of the season, Hülkenberg now sits eleventh in the drivers’ standings on sixteen points, equal with Ricciardo yet fourteen points down on seventh place Carlos Sainz Jr.
