Nico Hülkenberg hopes to finally get his 2026 Formula 1 season started. After a complicated stint in Australia, the German is excited to reverse the negative scenario at the Chinese GP.
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At Albert Park, the Audi driver had a weekend to forget. After failing to advance from Q2 in qualifying, on race day he only did the installation lap and immediately returned to the pits with problems, unable to compete in the race.
Therefore, now in Shanghai, the experienced competitor wants to leave Melbourne behind and look only at the opportunities available in the weekend of the first F1 Sprint of the year.
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“A new weekend, a new race: the advantage of the compact F1 calendar is that you don’t have to wait long to have another opportunity to get in the car and drive. I don’t want to focus on the disappointment of Melbourne, but rather on the positives of that event: we were competitive with both cars in all sessions, and that gives us confidence for China,” he said.
“Shanghai is a very different track from Melbourne, and it will be interesting to see how these cars behave on the long straights we will have this weekend. We will only have one free practice before the Sprint Qualifying, so we need to be ready from the first lap to ensure we are at the front of the midfield from the start,” he concluded.
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