Nico Hülkenberg (Audi/15th) in Baku: “Reasonable, but not without its quirks”

In the run-up to the Baku Grand Prix weekend, everyone was talking about the revamped Williams, which team principal James Vowles had described as “practically a new car”. But Audi had even more new features in store; the list of improvements comprises no fewer than 14 items, including a new front wing, nose cone, front and rear suspension, sidepods, engine cover, underbody and rear wing – an even more radical ‘B-spec’ version than Williams’s.

Sporting Director Allan McNish: “We haven’t brought anything this significant since Austria. In the first practice session, we’ll be making a comparison – Gabriel Bortoleto with the new package, Nico Hülkenberg with the tried-and-tested one. As a first step, we’ll find out whether the data from the track matches the data from the wind tunnel. Based on that, we’ll decide how to proceed with the package.”

The results from the first practice session were good enough to justify retrofitting Hülkenberg’s car as well. After P10 (Bortoleto) and P11 (Nico) in the first practice session, the second 60 minutes ended with the Brazilian in 14th place and the Emmerich-born driver in 15th.

How does the driver with 263 Grand Prix starts view this? Nico in the paddock at the Baku City Circuit: “All in all, a decent Friday. I was still driving with the previous specification in FP1 before switching to the new parts for FP2, so there was plenty of data to gather and a lot for us to understand. The practice sessions didn’t go entirely smoothly, with a few challenges to overcome, but the overall picture is encouraging. Now it’s a case of going through everything overnight, ironing out a few areas and seeing how we can put all the pieces together better tomorrow. If we manage that, I think we’ll be competitive.”

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