Nico Hulkenberg, Renault, 2019

Hulkenberg suspects he’ll need “crazy race” to score first podium in 2019

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In the round-up: Nico Hulkenberg suspects he’ll need a bit of luck if he’s going to end his record streak of race starts without a podium finish this year.

Welcome to Craig Scarborough

As many of you will have seen yesterday we have welcomed Craig Scarborough to RaceFans as our new technical contributor for the 2019 F1 season. I’m sure many of you will be familiar with his writing and appearances on Peter Windsor’s YouTube channel, and will be excited as I am to have him contributing to the site during the season.

Craig kicked things off yesterday by running the rule over Toro Rosso’s new contender for 2019. Later today we should see the new Mercedes W10 and Red Bull RB15 break cover for the first time – look out for Scarbs’ analysis of that pair of highly-anticipated cars soon on RaceFans.

Thanks to everyone for the incredibly positive response to Craig’s arrival in the comments yesterday and on social media. And special thanks also go to our RaceFans Supporters, whose contributions help make it possible for us to expand and bring in new writing talent.

See here if you’d like to become a RaceFans Supporter, or to find out more:

What they say

Hulkenberg was asked if he gets tired of answering questions about his long wait for a Formula 1 podium:

Kind of still a lot of questions about it. I mean now obviously it’s condensed because we’re here today, so much media. But I understand why, it’s fine.

Obviously I do want to be on there one day you know and we’re working on it, I’m working on it. So is it going to happen this year, if it’s possible, it’s impossible to say right now.

But as a race driver you always push for the best possible and hopefully if we are closer to the top three this year maybe on a given Sunday with a crazy race or favourable conditions it can happen. But I think we’ve just got to make sure that we are ready when the opportunity presents itself.

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Comment of the day

Do you expect to see more known sponsors on F1 cars?

Is getting a bigger/well known brand so hard to land these days in F1?

I mean, sure, Williams is not the most visible car in the pack given their form lately, but it’s one of only 10 teams that race all over the world in the most famous motorsport competition. I get that viewership is down and the kids nowadays don’t follow F1, but still there are tens of millions of people from my generation (35-year-old) or a bit younger/older that still watch it, and I dare to say that we are actually the most coveted audience by marketers, given the age and financial situation.
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On this day in F1

  • Fifties F1 racer Maurice Trintignant died on this day in 2005

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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30 comments on “Hulkenberg suspects he’ll need “crazy race” to score first podium in 2019”

  1. Don’t bury the headline behind hulk excuses!

    Scarbs joining the f1fanatic.co.uk team is HUGE, kudos to everyone involved in making that happen! And congrats on what this site has become!

    1. Xcm: f1fanatic.co.uk? Retro day on the internet?

      Thrilled to see Scarbs on Racefans. Congrats on the technical scoop, Keith.

      And don’t forget to support/subscribe to Racefans early and often. It’s the best bargain in F1 coverage.

    2. I guess I missed yesterday’s announcement too because having Scarbs here is huge and truly great for Keith and Co.!

      Great news!

  2. Good news from Renault.

    “hottest driver line-up in Formula 1”

    Happy to hear they have eschewed air conditioning in their latest challenger.

    Keep DannyRic and the Hulk hot ‘n hungry for the coolest air. Which is conveniently located at the front of the pack.

  3. Again, congratulations on the arrival of Scarbs to the site. Exactly 1 year ago, F1Fanatic.co.uk became Racefans.net, so I guess it was an appropiate anniversary gift getting his services!

    Happy birthday too for Racefans!

  4. Wow! Scarb’s now being part of Racefans is great news Keith. Well done. I will be eagerly waiting for his articles after the car launches and first test :) they would be really valuable.

  5. What a surprise to have Scarb’s on-board. Look forward to his technical insights…

  6. the opportunity presented itself at baku’16, the easiest podium he could get to this day.
    Force India was the fastest team that weekend besides mercedes.
    Perez set the 2nd fastest time behind Rosberg, but had to take a 5-place penalty for some reason and still got a 3rd place.

    Hulkenberg destroyed his chances with a spin on Q2 and didnt even make into Q3.
    So, it’s not like he’s unlucky, he just doesnt help himself.

    1. Yeah that day he didn’t help himself. How convenient for you to forget that at other times he was indeed unlucky. And that his teammates over the years(All Perez, whom he beat overall both in qualy and finished ahead more often than not).

      1. Missing sentence :”scored overall a grand total of four podiums”

      2. it’s not convenience at all.
        Baku last year for example, he was much ahead of Perez in the race, and bumped into the wall, all by himself.

        Perez got the podium again, and they weren’t even team mates anymore.

        Hulk had at least half a dozen GOOD opportunities to get his podium finish. He botched it at least in half the time.

        So, if you think luck has played a part into it…well. keep thinking. But you’ll be wrong.

    2. @ed 2017 as well. BTW, Perez’s grid penalty was for an unscheduled gearbox change following a crash in FP1.

  7. The COTD makes a good point. There is a sizable population that is well-off financially in the 30+ age demographics that is still following F1 (behind pay TV). However, being visible to the population just 3 hours every 2 weeks is quite low, especially for bigger / well-known brands who may already be known and having significant presence in geographies where F1 is being watched or raced.

    In fact, I see more and more new and unknown brands to come to F1. Think of it from their perspective, sponsoring an F1 car provides the easiest way to be visible in 20 countries and also be visible in many other countries (and that too, during the precious non-ad break time) where F1 is being watched. The alternative is to setup hoardings / TV commercials in each country individually which would be cumbersome.

    A brand like Rokit or Rich Energy essentially gets a ‘soft launch’ in 20 countries in 1 year. Based on social media trends and brand recall studies, they can identify which countries / markets are most likely to accept them and the brands can go for a proper launch in those markets.

    1. sponsoring an F1 car provides the easiest way to be visible in 20 countries and also be visible in many other countries 

      You can’t be more wrong. It is one of the most expensive way for the least profit. I work as a teacher in a high-school of around 500 pupils and no one, teen or adult, has ever watched an F1 race (ppv since ’13 in France) or even an F1 car.

      Sponsoring an F1 car is now a shot in the dark. You’s better sponsor a gamin app on the internet.

      1. You could ofcourse introduce F1 to your pupils :)

  8. Welcome to racefans Scarbs! Excellent news!

  9. Welcome Scarbs! Thanks to your wordpress website back in the day, I learned everything I know today about race cars. Looking forward to all your future articles. This is awesome.

  10. Congratulations Keith! Having Scarbs on board is a big one. Love his technical insights and I look forward to seeing them on racefans.

    1. + 1

      Little wonder that Racefans is the first site I visit every day and the only motor racing site I visit.

      1. @dbradock I visit Racefans.net daily as well, but also Motorsport.com. Some others occasionally, but these two every day.

  11. So Stroll has atleast a head start on the helmet front !

  12. Whilst Hulks comment might be a bit negative sounding, you can’t blame him for being realistic given that there will continue to be 6 cars ahead of them in the short term.

    However, one would suggest that this year should be their best chance with a PU change at RBR and two hotheads in that top 6 owe can only hope for some first lap carnage taking out at least half of the contenders in quite a few races.

  13. I have a gut feeling Hulkenberg will finally break his duck this year.

  14. Williams might miss the first day(s) of testing next week, apparently. Not only Renault that are in trouble with the deadlines.

    1. @hahostolze It’s only about a pre-test shakedown AFAIA, though.

  15. I like Hulk and Ricky, and think they’re a pretty even pair. But if we’re talking the hottest pair atm, now that Max and Ricky aren’t a thing anymore, I’d have to go with Vettel and LeClerc, that’s a fire line-up.

  16. Hopefully, he’d finally manage to achieve that elusive first podium-finish this upcoming season, although it’d indeed probably require something to happen at the front, but for that possibility he has to put (and stay there) himself into a position to benefit from a top-runners potential misfortune(s) to the greatest extent.

    I had thought Seidl was already officially part of the team.

  17. Indycar were testing at COTA yesterday & for anyone wandering the fastest lap of the day was 14 seconds off Hamilton’s pole time from last year. And yes they ran the F1 layout.

    Hamilton’s 2018 pole = 1:32.237
    Colton Herta yesterday = 1:46.6258

    1. i was at cota yesterday with some friends and something that really stood out to us was how much less exciting to watch the indycar’s were through the esses.

      you sit there for the f1 and the speed and direction change there capable of blows your mind and just makes you sit there and go ‘wow’. the indycar’s lack that, there clearly slower and look more cumbersome in the direction change and overall just lack that ‘wow’ factor that f1 has when you watch from trackside & see certain camera angles on tv.

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