Sahara Force India F1 Team ©
In his press release from the Sahara Force India yesterday, Nico Hulkenberg has stated that he felt very satisfied with finishing eighth place at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Hulkenberg battled through the grid to achieve eighth place and this will be a welcomed result for him after a difficult few races for the German driver. In his press release from the Sahara Force India yesterday, Hulkenberg stated that he enjoyed the race yesterday and the battles he had to face to finish eighth place. Hulkenberg stated the following:-
‘It was quite a cool race and very satisfying to finish in eighth. With a three-stop race you are always pushing, but my race was not too complicated and I was on my own for a large part of the afternoon. I also had a few nice battles and it was good fun.’
In my opinion, Hulkenberg did a great job to finish in eighth yesterday. Even though he struggled during the course of the weekend to extract pace from his car, he managed to extract it when it mattered on Sunday and scored some much needed points for Force India.
During the race, it is clear that Hulkenberg was pushing as hard as possible for the best result that he could achieve after a difficult few races for him and was rewarded with his efforts after battling and racing a few drivers along the way to finish eighth.
Further on in his press statement yesterday, Hulkenberg has said that the car felt better in the race than during the Practice session and qualifying and was able to push on track much better. Hulkenberg added the following:-
‘The car felt a bit better today compared to earlier in the weekend so I was more comfortable and really able to push. The team made the right calls on the strategy and we maximised our performance with the tyres in these very hot conditions.
‘I finished just behind the two Ferraris and maybe with one or two more laps I could have finished sixth instead of eighth, but that’s racing.’
It is clear that Hulkenberg was able to push the car in the race yesterday and really extract performance from it. The strategy that Hulkenberg and the team went with yesterday really paid off and they did the best that they could with what they had. And it is great to see Hulkenberg back in the points once again after a great drive.
Overall, even though Hulkenberg feels that he could of challenged for sixth, I feel that he achieved the best result he could of in the race yesterday. It was great to see Hulkenberg back in the points again after a difficult few races for him. But it is clear that despite Hulkenberg’s best efforts, all he can do is ensure that he keeps pushing and build on the result he has achieved in Brazil to end his season in the best possible fashion in Abu Dhabi in a few weeks time.
I feel that unless something major happens in the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi where double points are on offer, Force India have lost the chance to challenge for fifth in the Constructors Championship. But if any driver on the grid will be pushing himself to try and achieve this objective it is without a shadow of a doubt Hulkenberg. But this might be a task that is too much for him , unless he has the car underneath him because his talent is there for all to see and deserves to be rewarded with a better car.
