Nico Hulkenberg will drive in place of Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin again for this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, with the four-time world champion continuing to recover from Covid.
Vettel was ruled out of last week’s season opener in Bahrain after testing positive for COVID-19, leading to Hulkenberg being called up to stand-in for his German compatriot.
Upon his positive test, Vettel returned to his home in Switzerland in the hope he could recover in time to compete in Jeddah this weekend.
But on Thursday morning, Aston Martin released a statement confirming Vettel would be absent once again, but expects him to be back in the car at the next round in Australia.
“Nico Hulkenberg will practice, qualify and race alongside Lance Stroll,” the statement reads.
“Despite lack of mileage in the AMR22 Nico coped well in Bahrain and we are sure he will do likewise in Jeddah.
“We expect Sebastian Vettel to be fit for the Australian GP.”
This will be Hulkenberg’s fifth super sub appearance for the Silverstone-based outfit in the last two years, having stood in at three races in 2020 and last weekend in Bahrain.
The German had not tested a 2022 car prior to jumping in the AMR22, but qualified ahead of team-mate Lance Stroll before finishing the race in 17th place.
Hulkenberg flew back to Aston Martin’s factory after the event to drive the Jeddah circuit on the team’s simulator, which he has no previous experience on.
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