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Despite lots of promise, Racing Point hadn’t really lived up to pre-season expectations of its ‘Pink Mercedes’ 2020 philosophy – until today.
In claiming a surprise third place in qualifying for the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, Nico Hulkenberg has delivered the performance from the Silverstone-based team we’ve been waiting for since the start of the season, despite not being a full-time Racing Point driver.
Our writers give their verdict on what Hulkenberg’s sensational performance means for his 2021 Formula 1 prospects, what the bigger picture is for Racing Point and the tough questions that need to be answered by Lance Stroll.
Edd Straw
Stroll might now be fourth-best choice for Aston Martin in 2021
While Lance Stroll’s genealogical advantage is well known, he has yet to prove he’s a better choice than Sergio Perez to partner Sebastian Vettel next year if Racing Point lands the four-time world champion.
But Hulkenberg’s performance, with less preparation having come in cold last week, might have made Stroll the fourth-best of the four contenders – if, of course, the team was to decide Hulkenberg’s performance justifies him being looked at as more than just a stand-in.
This is a concern for Stroll, as it also suggests the performance he achieved last weekend when effectively representing Racing Point solo in the race wasn’t optimum for the car. While it’s still only a job part-done given there’s still the race to come, it was an assured performance from Hulkenberg all round.
We’ll see if there was any specific reason for Stroll’s difficulties, but it’s never good for a regular driver for a stand in to turn up and outpace them.
The pressure really is on him to get the best from himself to prove he warrants that drive over the others in Racing Point’s orbit for more reasons than his family ties.
Gary Anderson
Are the stars aligning for Hulkenberg?
No matter what anyone thinks of the situation at Racing Point regarding the Renault brake duct protest, you would have to say as a team with what it has it did what was needed today to achieve the best result possible.
Third for Hulkenberg behind the two works Mercedes cars and sixth for Stroll is a great team result.
I never really understood why Hulkenberg lost his seat in F1 at the end of last year. Yes, for Renault, a French team, replacing him with Ocon was probably a reasonable thing to do to help keep the company in F1.
But why did none of the other teams made a play for Hulkenberg even as a reserve driver? This would have given him a year off to clear his head with a view to stepping up for next season.
Now he has put himself firmly back on the market, but there are very few top seats available and it is a top seat he needs and deserves. A podium tomorrow could not just break his duck but also put him at the top of a few teams’ short list.
It would be a year late and a dollar short, but with this coronavirus situation and the fact that no one knows how it is going to unfold at future races I wouldn’t be surprised to see Mercedes trying to set something like this up with Hulkenberg. He would be there just in case Lewis Hamilton or Valtteri Bottas slip on a banana skin.
Scott Mitchell
Why not dream?
Last week I argued ‘why not dream?’ about a Hulkenberg podium on his comeback. But it was never really aimed at the British GP. If he got a second chance, the second Silverstone race was the better bet.
Well, thanks to Hulkenberg shortcutting the learning process that would limit other drivers from getting up to speed as quickly in a potential podium-challenging car, and his diligent work in between the races to amplify his progress as much as possible, he will start the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix in a position to do that.
It’s a stunning effort from Hulkenberg, with some assistance from Max Verstappen and Red Bull underdelivering.
But full credit to the man who was out of the F1 picture altogether nine days ago for coming in and doing a much better job than the team’s full-season driver.
Keeping Verstappen behind will be an immense mental and physical challenge given Hulkenberg is out of practice and probably in a slower race car.
But he’s defied almost every expectation so far. Why not dream?
Mark Hughes
Move over Red Bull
This is looking more like the Racing Point we expected. It genuinely looks like the second-fastest car but it has not always fulfilled that potential.
There were hints of it in Austria with Sergio Perez’s performance there but since then there have been a couple of quiet races.
Perez’s contracting of the virus and the disruption around that played its part in last week’s underperformance as his replacement Hulkenberg understandably took a time to get it to speed with almost zero preparation – and of course was unable to start the race.
But a contributory factor last week was surely also the inappropriately high wing level chosen, which meant Stroll couldn’t pass slower cars and was actually overtaken by lesser cars towards the end of the race.
With a lower downforce setting and some extra prep time for Hulk, the true pace of the car has become much more apparent this weekend.
