Nico Hulkenberg received praise for his reaction during a moment of great danger at the Dutch Grand Prix in Formula 1. The German narrowly avoided hitting his teammate Gabriel Bortoleto head-on after an incident on the first lap.
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Bortoleto lost control of the Audi at the last banked corner of the Zandvoort circuit, in wet track conditions. The Brazilian managed to avoid the protective barrier but completed a 360-degree spin and raised a cloud of smoke, while Hulkenberg was right behind and had his vision compromised.
With Bortoleto’s car crossing the track, Hulkenberg had to quickly decide which side to escape to. The German chose the left and came very close to hitting his teammate sideways, avoiding a collision that could have had serious consequences.
At the same moment as the Brazilian driver’s spin, a few meters ahead, Max Verstappen also spun, but was not as lucky as Bortoleto and destroyed his Red Bull Racing car against the protective barriers.
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Allan McNish, Audi’s head, compared the scene to a sequence from the movie ‘Days of Thunder’ about Nascar, released in 1990, and highlighted especially Hulkenberg’s reaction ability: “There are two things. When something happens in front of you, there is a mental process, but there is also an instinct, an instinctive knowledge of where to go and what to do,” McNish told the press.
The executive explained that this type of situation requires a combination of perception and immediate reaction: “Some people have it, others don’t,” McNish said, adding that it is necessary to quickly assess the trajectory of the spinning car and decide how much space to cover in each direction.
McNish also highlighted Bortoleto’s performance in managing to keep the car in the middle of the track and avoid it being thrown against the wall. About Hulkenberg, however, Audi’s head had no doubts: “I don’t know if it was instinct, skill, concentration or anything else. But it was a very good defense,” concluded the Audi executive.
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