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W Series drivers will be writing a series of columns for The Race this year, giving their verdicts on what’s going on in Formula 1.
This week, Caitlin Wood makes a case for why Racing Point is being linked to the wrong German driver for 2021 after a revealing 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen rightly took the plaudits for his stunning victory in the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, but Nico Hulkenberg was the standout driver at Silverstone.
Racing Point team boss Otmar Szafnauer has been sounding out drivers about next season, but he should look closer to home after last weekend when Hulkenberg proved that he deserves a place on the grid in 2021. Nico Rosberg – the 2016 F1 champion – tweeted words to that effect on Saturday night after his compatriot qualified third.
Tellingly, several drivers made a point of going over to Hulkenberg and congratulating him after that remarkable performance – they know quality when they see it and lots of them clearly feel that he has been hard done by.
He will be again if Szafnauer signs Sebastian Vettel as it has been rumoured because, while the four-time world champion looked shot after making another unforced error at the start of Sunday’s race, Hulkenberg barely put a foot wrong and has a real spring in his step again.
With his talent and experience, Hulkenberg is a top 10 F1 driver. It’s impossible to overstate what a difficult task Hulkenberg has faced over the last fortnight, since news broke that Sergio Perez had tested positive for COVID-19.
The British Grand Prix was a rapid rollercoaster of emotions for Hulkenberg, culminating in the crushing disappointment of missing that race with a technical issue. To bounce back so emphatically just a week later was a staggering achievement.
Having had just six practice sessions compared to rivals now racing every weekend, he qualified third – one tenth of a second ahead of eventual race-winner Verstappen and three tenths clear of his temporary team-mate Lance Stroll.
The race result showed Stroll in sixth and Hulkenberg in seventh but, make no mistake, Hulkenberg comfortably outperformed Stroll at Silverstone. Observers were crying foul when Racing Point pitted Hulkenberg for fresh tyres with five laps to go as, although Alex Albon was closing and ended up overtaking Stroll, it looked unlikely that the Red Bull driver would have passed both pink cars.
The team said afterwards that Hulkenberg was struggling with a vibration, and the man himself admitted that he probably wouldn’t have made it to the end. Perhaps that was true. Perhaps that was the measured reaction of an experienced driver looking for a contract who knows when to pick his battles.
Hulkenberg said that he will be physically sore after his first grand prix for 252 days. He will have been training hard and staying fit of course, but these cars put a very unique strain on your body and he won’t have been training his neck and back, in particular, with the same intensity since he left Renault and F1 at the end of last season.
Nothing gives you the same feeling as just getting out on track and doing the laps, so to be parachuted in at such sort notice would have been tough in any circumstance. For it to happen at one of the most demanding circuits in the world and in some of the hottest weather the country has ever experienced made it even tougher.
I’ve raced at Silverstone a few times in the past and have spent lots of time learning the Grand Prix circuit over the past few weeks in preparation for the final round of the W Series Esports League. It’s such a difficult lap – fast, flowing, technical and exposed to the elements – so the overriding emotion when you nail it is relief.
It puts driver and car under extreme pressure as we’ve seen over the last two weekends, hence why Charles Leclerc sounded so ecstatic after managing to nurse his tyres home on a one-stop strategy on Sunday.
The tyres are effectively boiling, giving you barely any grip and lots of oversteer. In turn, that makes you slide which makes the situation worse, so you have to alter your driving style to minimise the issue and maintain competitive lap times.
When you factor all of that in, Hulkenberg did an incredible job. He looks reinvigorated and focused, and you can tell he has unfinished business with F1.
Despite several near misses, the podium continues to elude Hulkenberg. Lots of drivers will be able to relate to that, myself included. I missed out on automatic requalification for W Series by one point and one place last year, so to get the opportunity to come back – albeit in simracing with the W Series Esports League, where I am sixth with one round remaining – is one you jump at.
We saw Hulkenberg sprinting through the paddock ahead of practice for the British Grand Prix two Fridays ago, so eager was he to get in the car and make up for lost time. He’s been given his second chance and grabbed it with both hands and team bosses should be forming an orderly queue for his signature now.
Caitlin Wood finished 13th in the inaugural W Series championship in 2019.
The 23-year-old Australian has competed in several series, including Blancpain GT, and is currently competing in the W Series Esports League, the final round of which is on Thursday, 13 August, at 19:00 BST across BBC and W Series’ digital platforms.
