Nico Hulkenberg, Sergio Perez, Singapore, 2024

‘Perez is only quicker when he has DRS’: How Hulkenberg’s Haas beat a Red Bull – again

Formula 1

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At the Austrian Grand Prix in June, Nico Hulkenberg pulled off a cunning move to ensure he beat Sergio Perez to the finish.

The two former team mates crossed paths again in the Singapore Grand Prix last weekend. For the second time this year, the Haas driver put one over his Red Bull rival.

But this clash was a much more prolonged affair. Hulkenberg had to soak up lap after lap of pressure from Perez, who he emerged in front of following his sole pit stop, with 32 laps remaining.

“It was very stressful keeping the Red Bull behind for the whole of the second stint,” admitted Hulkenberg afterwards. Here’s how he did it.

Nico Hulkenberg’s Singapore Grand Prix radio

Jump to:

“We’ll try and extend a bit”
“Are we gapping the people?”
“You have cleared Stroll now”
“He’s going to lose like two seconds with Leclerc”
“Let’s not get undercut”
“I need some stuff, man, come on”
“You’re quicker than Perez is everywhere”
“Those shitty brakes”
“Perez’s picked up his pace behind”
“Norris isn’t catching that quickly”
“Perfect drive”

“We’ll try and extend a bit”

Start, Singapore, 2024
Hulkenberg briefly passed Piastri at the start, then dropped behind the McLaren

Having qualified sixth, Hulkenberg briefly got up to fifth at the expense of Oscar Piastri at the start, but the McLaren driver retook the position at turn seven on the first lap.

Piastri quickly pulled away, and Hulkenberg soon had the benefit of clear air ahead of him.

Lap: 4/62 HUL: 1’39.510
Hulkenberg So Alonso behind, right?
Gannon Correct, Alonso.
Lap: 6/62 HUL: 1’38.903
Gannon Temps are all good at this lift-and-coast. Surface overheating on the rear is starting to increase.
Lap: 8/62 HUL: 1’38.821
Gannon Nico, Colapinto is in nine, Tsunoda 11, so they have a gap to us. So we’ll try and extend a bit, extend.
Lap: 9/62 HUL: 1’38.404
Hulkenberg A bit too much [front wing] flap now.
Gannon Okay, understood. Stroll and Kevin are struggling a bit on hard. So go longer on this one if we can.

“Are we gapping the people?”

Nico Hulkenberg, Haas, Singapore, 2024
Hulkenberg faced several threats from behind after the start

While Hulkenberg had Fernando Alonso and Charles Leclerc close behind him, Haas were more focused on ensuring he covered off the threats from Sergio Perez and potentially Franco Colapinto further behind.

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Lap: 11/62 HUL: 1’38.688
Hulkenberg Brakes hot.
Gannon They are at the top of the working range. Increasing lift-and-coast will help.
Lap: 12/62 HUL: 1’38.887
Gannon Rear tyre temps have peaked. They’re coming down now. The rear will get better.
Gannon It’s all going well, Nico. We’ll go as long as we can. Good job.
Lap: 15/62 HUL: 1’38.799
Gannon Nico, watch 13 traction please.
Gannon Sainz and Albon have boxed already. We’re just monitoring the gaps behind. But you’re doing good.
Lap: 16/62 HUL: 1’39.054
Gannon How are the tyres, Nico? How are the tyres?
Hulkenberg Yeah, they’re stable.
Gannon All good from our side, too. Leclerc is threatening Alonso now. Safety Car and VSC windows are open.
Lap: 17/62 HUL: 1’38.771
Gannon Nico, we still think the hard might be front-limited, so we’ll still add a bit [of front wing angle] on the hard. It will have less overheating too.
Lap: 18/62 HUL: 1’38.858
Hulkenberg Okay.
Gannon How’s the tyre, Nico? Still okay?
Hulkenberg Yeah, at this pace. This is the pace we can do. Not sure we should dump some aero balance. Are we gapping the people?
Lap: 19/62 HUL: 1’39.143
Gannon Albon retired. So we’re not worried about the gaps behind right now.
Gannon This pace and deg is good and we are clearing the slow cars.

“You have cleared Stroll now”

While Hulkenberg continued to extend his lead over cars further behind, Alonso lost a place the Leclerc, which meant the Haas driver was now under pressure from the Ferrari.

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Lap: 21/62 HUL: 1’39.250
Hulkenberg I think maybe just leave aero balance as it is. It’ll pick up.
Gannon Copy that, Nico. Hard will be more front-limited, so that’s good. We’ll leave it.
Lap: 22/62 HUL: 1’39.128
Gannon We’re close to clearing Stroll on the race start hard, so that’s good, pace is good.
Lap: 23/62 HUL: 1’39.465
Gannon Okay, Nico, watch the combined exit turn eight, turn 13.
Lap: 24/62 HUL: 1’39.268
Gannon Pace is very good and you have cleared Stroll now.
Lap: 25/62 HUL: 1’39.691
Gannon Leclerc passes Alonso
Okay Leclerc behind now.

“He’s going to lose like two seconds with Leclerc”

Aston Martin responded by bringing Alonso into the pits. As Alonso had ‘undercut’ the Ferrari driver, Hulkenberg pointed out his rival was likely to end up being overtaken by Leclerc again later in the race, which will cost him more time.

Lap: 26/62 HUL: 1’39.569
Gannon Okay Nico…
Hulkenberg Did Alonso pit?
Gannon Alonso boxed, yeah, he boxed. We’re just monitoring, he’s boxed.
Gannon Alonso’s going to run into huge traffic.
Hulkenberg Still think [unclear] lap?
Gannon Yeah. Yeah.
Hulkenberg Okay. My rears are also struggling more and more, just FYI.
Gannon Yeah, copy that, we see it.
Lap: 27/62 HUL: 1’39.773
Gannon Alonso’s in the group behind Kevin. Kevin’s doing 40.5, so we will eventually clear Kevin if we can go a few more laps.
Hulkenberg So he’s going to lose like two seconds with Leclerc when he comes through
Gannon Yeah understood there. We’ll still be able to clear Kevin, we hope.

“Let’s not get undercut”

Hulkenberg made sure his team reacted immediately to Perez pitting, which they did, enduring he came out still ahead of the Red Bull.

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Lap: 29/62 HUL: 1’48.550
Gannon All okay, all okay, still opening a gap.
Hulkenberg Moving behind, who is that?
Gannon Colapinto. Similar pace.
Hulkenberg Let’s not get undercut by these guys.
Gannon Copy that.
Gannon We’re still zero on flap, Nico.
Hulkenberg Yeah. Do you see data? You see what’s going on?
Gannon Yes, copy that.
Hulkenberg But if we’re gapping them, are you going to sit it out?
Gannon No, we’re good now. Box now, Nico, box now.

“I need some stuff, man, come on”

Nico Hulkenberg, Haas, Singapore, 2024
Hulkenberg urged his team to keep him in the picture after his pit stop

Once he made his pit stop, Hulkenberg briefly fell behind Gasly, but was easily able to pass the Alpine.

Lap: 30/62 HUL: 2’01.641
Gannon Okay. Colapinto boxed as well. Remember Mode RS. Just have Gasly to deal with.
Gannon Gasly close on exit. Gasly’s slow, old tyre. Perez and Colapinto new tyre behind. Mode F1 when you can.
Hulkenberg Hulkenberg tries to pass Gasly on the outside of turn seven but is forced wide
Come on!
Gannon Hulkenberg passes Gasly into turn 14
Good job, Nico. 32 to go, Nico, bring it home.
Lap: 31/62 HUL: 1’38.546
Hulkenberg …Colapinto, you know what is going on with Perez’s tyres? I need some stuff, man, come on.
Gannon New tyre, same as you, pitted one lap earlier. Colapinto same lap as you. In the first stint you were quicker than Perez. Colapinto’s still behind Gasly.
Lap: 32/62 HUL: 1’38.385
Gannon Fernando is behind us somewhere or what? Fernando eight ahead, he pitted like seven laps earlier than you.

“You’re quicker than Perez is everywhere”

Nico Hulkenberg, Haas, Singapore, 2024
Haas told Hulkenberg he had little to worry about with Perez

Although Perez stayed close to Hulkenberg in the DRS zones, he seldom looked quick enough to attack the Haas.

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Lap: 33/62 HUL: 1’37.800
Gannon You’re quicker than Perez is everywhere. He’s only keeping up when he has DRS.
Lap: 34/62 HUL: 1’38.002
Gannon Your pace is good. You’re quicker than Alonso.
Lap: 35/62 HUL: 1’37.470
Gannon Tyres looking good. You’re quicker than Alonso and Sainz ahead. Alonso is six ahead, Sainz nine ahead, so you’re just closing up to them.
Lap: 36/62 HUL: 1’37.827
Gannon Currently P9. So Sainz and Alonso will be in play at the end of the race. So we’ll just keep going like this.
Gannon Leclerc is boxing on the hard, he’ll be close at the exit.

“Those shitty brakes”

Hulkenberg’s biggest concern in the second half of the race was the performance of his brakes, which he complained about more than once.

Lap: 38/62 HUL: 1’37.941
Gannon Brake balance half a percent rearward. Tyres are looking good.
Hulkenberg What’s the delta in tyre age, Alonso and us?
Gannon Alonso is five laps older. Five laps older.
Lap: 39/62 HUL: 1’37.811
Hulkenberg Oh man, those shitty brakes we have. The medium pressure brakes.
Gannon Yeah. Copy that, Nico. Still very good lap time. Alonso’s doing 38.4.
Lap: 40/62 HUL: 1’37.919
Gannon 22 laps to go at the line. Leclerc overtook Alonso. Alonso 4.2 ahead.
Lap: 41/62 HUL: 1’37.994
Gannon Brake balance half percent rearward.
Gannon Press oil pump button.
Lap: 42/62 HUL: 1’37.911
Gannon Nico, the tyres are looking good at this pace, you’re protecting them well. Perez may be picking up the pace. Alonso 38.3 still closing on him.
Hulkenberg I don’t agree with the rearwards braking [unclear] the medium brakes. Sliding the rear more.
Gannon Copy that Nico, go with your feeling. That was just for front locking, go with your feeling.

“Perez’s picked up his pace behind”

Perez made a final attempt to pressure Hulkenberg as they caught up to Alonso ahead. Hulkenberg seldom got close enough to use DRS, while Perez stayed within striking distance, yet was unable to make a move.

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Lap: 44/62 HUL: 1’37.795
Gannon You can see Perez’s picked up his pace behind.
Lap: 45/62 HUL: 1’37.714
Hulkenberg Ah it’s difficult in his wake now. Starting to feel it.
Gannon Copy that. Perez has same complaint behind you.
Lap: 46/62 HUL: 1’37.919
Gannon The tyres are looking very good, Nico, very good.
Lap: 47/62 HUL: 1’37.743
Gannon All temperatures are good. So lift-and-coast just whatever you need for you.
Lap: 50/62 HUL: 1’38.705
Gannon Kevin is slow with a puncture. Kevin slow into 14.
Lap: 54/62 HUL: 1’38.051
Gannon Eight to go at the line. P9. Good job.

“Norris isn’t catching that quickly”

Nico Hulkenberg, Haas, Singapore, 2024
Nico Hulkenberg, Haas, Singapore, 2024

The Hulkenberg-Perez fight was disrupted in the closing laps by the leaders coming by to lap them.

Lap: 57/62 HUL: 1’38.109
Gannon Six to go. Perez will have the blue first.
Gannon Five to go at the line. Norris blue in one or two laps.
Lap: 58/62 HUL: 1’38.075
Gannon Four to go. Norris isn’t catching that quickly.
Lap: 59/62 HUL: 1’37.915
Gannon Okay, Perez had the blue. So now Norris 2.7 behind, leader, he’ll be a blue next lap.
Gannon Break balance half a percent reawward if you want for front lock.
Lap: 60/62 HUL: 1’40.502
Gannon Blue flag Norris, blue flag Norris, Perez, three behind Norris.
Gannon Hulkenberg lets Norris past between turns seven and eight
Perez three behind.
Gannon It will be one lap to go at the line.
Lap: 61/62 HUL: 1’38.723
Gannon Starting last lap here, Perez two behind.

“Perfect drive”

Nico Hulkenberg, Haas, Singapore, 2024
Hulkenberg earned a useful ninth for Haas

Once that was done Hulkenberg brought the car home in ninth place. But despite his satisfaction in beating a much quicker Red Bull, he was disappointed Alonso had been able to beat him home.

Chequered flag
Gannon Chequered flag Nico, chequered flag, charge on. That’s P9 Nico, outstanding drive, perfect drive.
Gannon Oh boy. I guess nobody said it was easy. Oh, fuck me. That was hard to bring that tyre home.
Gannon Yeah, amazing Nico, you were pulling away from Perez. Great drive. No Safety Cars. Unbelievable. So great job, man, P9.
Hulkenberg Can you give me the ranking please?
Gannon Copy, sorry about that. P1 Norris, two Verstappen, three Piastri, foor Russell, five Leclerc, six Hamilton, seven Sainz, eight Alonso, nine you, 10 Perez, then Colapinto Tsunoda, Ocon, Stroll, Zhou, Bottas, Gasly, RIC and Kevin retired and Albon retired. So no points for Williams or RB.
Hulkenberg Yeah, but I guess, I don’t know, the undercut from Alonso is not ideal. Five laps in clean air is probably possible.
Gannon Yeah copy that. One Safety Car would have ruined it. Anyway, your drive was perfect. Thank you.

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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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15 comments on “‘Perez is only quicker when he has DRS’: How Hulkenberg’s Haas beat a Red Bull – again”

  1. Thanks a lot for putting in the work to get these stories of how the race panned out for the drivers outside the podium. Very interesting and enjoyable to see what is going on in the cars.

  2. I was surprised Haas didn’t seem bothered about being undercut by Alonso. The engineer just said he thought Alonso would be in ‘massive traffic’, then never mentioned him again until it was too late. I can understand why Nico was upset to finish behind him, because the Haas and Aston looked very similar on pace, so I’m sure he could have won that battle if they had pitted when Alonso did.

    1. It was a great fight over the whole race distance. I really enjoyed the midfield battle even without too many passes. Haas had maybe had one chance to beat Alonso and that was to pit just the one lap after them. But at that point it was still unclear how the traffic would unfold and they were afraid to get stuck. So they I guess they opted for a long stint and a large tire delta to repass him later, but couldn’t couldn’t hang on to that strategy because other undercuts from Perez and Colapinto were coming threatening their position further.

      1. @roadrunner True, there’s a lot of factors to consider. Haas also could have gone aggressive and pitted as soon as there was a gap behind, possibly before Alonso, but perhaps they were worried about how vulnerable they might be later in the race if they had done so. I can understand them being a bit conservative in these situations because 2 points is still very valuable to them, so going for 4 points may have been considered a bit too greedy in their position when it had a possibility of backfiring.

  3. Very interesting. I enjoy these insights.

  4. More and more I think that Nico has been overlooked by the top teams during his career. He’s been in mediocre teams at best and has always performed as expected or better. I’d really love it if he would be able to get a podium in the final years of his career (of course it’s a mystery how Audi/Sauber will come out of the gates next year, but it’d be surprising if they would be fighting por podiums right away). I think if he would have been in that second Red Bull, nobody would talk about Danel’s FLAP at Marina Bay now.

    1. I think it’s for sure, perez has been able to catch more podium opportunities while in similar cars as hulkenberg, but like perez, overall hulkenberg would’ve deserved a year in a top car and then see from there.

    2. I think you must be stupid looking at something like Brazil 2012 and come away saying « he screwed up so he clearly is not deserving of a top team ».
      He has shown again and again to have the pace needed.
      If you look at something like Monaco 2016, the only reason Perez got the podium instead of him is because Force India gave Perez the best strategy.

    3. The first F2 driver to win the championship in his rookie year was Nico Rosberg. Granted, it was everyone’s rookie year, so someone was going to.

      Lewis Hamilton was the next F2 driver to win his rookie year.

      Hulkenberg was the 3rd.

    4. Magnussen has made Nico like a god. Ollie stepped in midseason and immediately out qualified him. Nico has never soundly beaten a good teammate. If anything, he’s overrated by many fans and is rated as he should be by the teams. A solid driver but nothing special.

      1. I recollect Nico beat Carlos Sainz quite convincingly in 2018 and many people rate Carlos highly

  5. Interesting article, but it’s a little strange to headline it with a quotation (in quotation marks) which isn’t actually in the transcript. They actually say that Perez is “only keeping up when he has DRS”, and Hulkenberg is faster everywhere else. For me it changes the entire texture of the story – if Perez was faster, presumably he lacked the ability to get past, but if he was slower almost everywhere then it says something about the Haas/Red Bull matchup.

    Either way, something presented as a quotation really should be a quotation and not a distortion, especially when it’s the headline.

  6. Hulk is a decent driver but he along with Alonso and Albon until now has considerably weaker teammate. We saw in Baku, Bearman was matching Hulk in his first full weekend in an F1 car. He actually beat him in qualifying as well. The way Stroll is driving it looks like Hulk will end up at P10.

    1. Bearman might not have had the race in mind during qualifying. The Hulk is probably one of the most underrated drivers on the grid. Maybe almost as good as Alonso in my estimation.

  7. Hulk’s been great this season, but he’s still being judged as if he’s in the 8th or 9th fastest car on the grid. Haas was likely just had a tad behind the Williams for 5th fastest car on the grid for the past three races. So, he should be fighting for the final points positions each weekend. And, if Alonso could keep Leclerc behind in a car two seconds a lap faster, Hulk should’ve kept Checo in a car slower than the Ferrari behind him.

Comments are closed.