Audi driver Nico Hülkenberg opened up about his tricky start and his primary takeaways from the 2026 F1 Chinese GP weekend following his eleventh-place finish in Sunday’s race.
After encountering a DNF in the Sprint race, Hülkenberg missed out on a spot in the final segment of qualifying by the tiniest of margins, 0.002s.
While the German bolted on the hard tyres for his first stint on Sunday, a sluggish start made him lose four positions by the end of the opening lap. He eventually made his way up to eighth place before boxing for the medium compound on Lap 35.
However, a wheelgun issue led to a rather long pit stop, and Hülkenberg crossed the line in P11. Audi ultimately went one place away from scoring back-to-back points.
Hülkenberg’s learnings from the 2026 Chinese GP weekend
Speaking in the print media pen after the F1 race, Nico Hülkenberg revealed what his key takeaways were from the weekend after he finished the 2026 Chinese GP just outside the points.
Noting how he wasn’t able to start the race in Melbourne due to a technical problem, the 38-year-old stated that completing 55 laps at the Shanghai International Circuit was a productive exercise. Although he admitted that his race was quite difficult to manage at times, the 2015 winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans added that he is looking forward to evaluating the data they collected before heading to Japan.
Reckoning that the Audi R26 has untapped potential, Hülkenberg also commented that the process of getting on top of their many issues is gradual.
“Well yeah, it’s the first race for me, as last time it didn’t happen obviously. So, just you know, useful, valuable to get the laps in, learning, a lot to take in, a lot to process.
“Obviously not quite been one of the smoothest of races but we’ll take it from here. Like I said, a lot to look at, to analyse now over next week.
“And yeah, I think potential is there but obviously we need to work on a few things, many things actually, and try to, you know, step by step to progress.”
Hülkenberg on tricky race starts in 2026
With regard to his race start that saw him lose several positions off the line, Nico Hülkenberg emphasised the noticeable contrast in starts across the grid and remarked that they are manageable as long as any cars ahead aren’t entirely stationary.
Referring to Liam Lawson, who was rather lucky to escape a disastrous collision with Franco Colapinto at lights out in Australia, Hülkenberg surmised that the starts at the 2026 Chinese GP weren’t particularly sketchy since no one ahead of him had to swerve across another driver’s path to avoid a major incident.
Highlighting the challenges of energy harvesting and deployment that the new F1 cars pose, the one-time podium finisher also asserted how punishing the use of electrical power in the wrong section of the track currently is. At the same time, he added that the teams are still trying to get to grips with the 2026 regulations and that they have a long learning curve ahead of them.
“Yeah, I think also today there was a lot of different starts out there. But it all worked obviously as long as you get away a little bit and don’t just, you know, [remain stagnant].
“Obviously last week I think Liam’s [Lawson] case was, you know, worse. Today I think no one at least in front of me what I could see didn’t have such a bad one.
“I think it’s just with how you use energy, you know, and sometimes when you overspend somewhere the system takes it away from you. So, it’s just learning and understanding how it works.”
