Audi positively evaluated the performance in the Sprint qualifying for the Formula 1 Chinese GP, even facing some challenges throughout the activities in Shanghai, with Nico Hulkenberg taking P11 and Gabriel Bortoleto in P14.
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Team principal Jonathan Wheatley highlighted that Sprint format weekends usually require quick adaptation from teams, as there is little track time before the short race grid is defined: “A Sprint race weekend always brings challenges for the teams, as there is very little time to learn about the car before going straight into Sprint qualifying and then into the Sprint race itself, the momentum builds very quickly,” Wheatley stated.
According to him, the process of understanding the car is even more intense at this start of the technical cycle, with the new Formula 1 models: “With these new and very complex cars, arriving at a new circuit means you are constantly learning more about the package, understanding where the performance is and where improvements are needed, lap after lap.”
Wheatley also praised the team’s work between the only free practice and Sprint qualifying, highlighting that adjustments made in that interval helped improve the car’s performance: “Considering these challenges, I think the team did a good job between FP1 and Sprint qualifying to address the key areas where we could extract performance from the car, and the result reflected our pace well today. There are still some issues that the drivers have been highlighting since the winter, which remain a focus for us as we continue to develop the car,” he added.
During the session, Hulkenberg’s car also faced a technical setback: “On Nico’s side, we briefly lost communication during SQ2, but the team managed to resolve this issue as soon as the car returned to the garage,” Wheatley explained. The official stated that the focus now is to execute a trouble-free Sprint race: “Our priority now is to have a clean Sprint race and then see the progress we can make before the qualifying session for the GP,” he concluded.
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Hulkenberg finished the session in 11th place and came close to advancing to SQ3: “It’s a shame to miss out on SQ3 by such a small margin, but overall, P11 is still a good, solid result.
He also commented on the communication problem that occurred during the session: “In SQ2, I lost radio communication with the team, so I had to manage part of the run on my own, which complicated things,” he added.
Despite this, Hulkenberg showed confidence in the performance shown so far: “Other than that, the feeling with the car has been good since the morning. It seems we are well in the midfield again, which is encouraging. It’s very tight out there, so we’ll take what we learned today and aim to move forward tomorrow,” the German driver completed.
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