Official: Nico Hülkenberg disqualified from Bahrain Grand Prix
The German, who had finished 13th in the race, was eventually disqualified by the stewards for a technical infringement. The George Russell case was also judged.
A complicated weekend. Nico Hülkenberg never seemed able to compete with the other drivers to make it into the Top 10. Struggling in every race to try and scrape together a few points, the Sauber was far too off the pace this weekend, especially against Alpine, which had a resurgence of form.
Nico Hülkenberg’s 13th place finish at the Bahrain Grand Prix is proof of that. At least it was. Because the German was disqualified after the race. During technical inspections conducted by Jo Bauer’s team, a violation was found on his car.
It was identified that there was excessive wear on his rear skid, by less than a millimeter. Exactly the same issue as Lewis Hamilton at the Chinese Grand Prix. Like the Briton, he received a disqualification. This doesn’t change anything in itself for him as he hadn’t brought any points to his team.
The commissioners also examined the George Russell case. The Mercedes driver was summoned for using his DRS in a prohibited zone. He was ultimately not penalized. The reason is simple. Throughout the event, he suffered from mechanical and electronic issues. His tracker was working very poorly. His geolocation even positioned him off the track at times.
Electronic issues
Regarding the use of his DRS, a 37-meter opening between turns 10 and 11 was pointed out. According to the stewards, this was an error that did not give an advantage to driver #63. The connection between the automated DRS activation system and the car failed due to issues with a timing loop provided by a third party. The FIA therefore authorized the manual activation of the DRS in accordance with Article 22.1 h) », states the FIA communiqué.
« At that moment, the driver was aware of a brake-by-wire system issue and other electronic problems. He was then advised to use an auxiliary button in the cockpit, which serves as both an emergency radio button and a manual DRS activation button. On the straight between turns 10 and 11, he attempted to contact the team via radio using this button but accidentally activated the DRS. The DRS was activated over a distance of 37 meters on a straight of approximately 700 meters. While he gained 0.02 seconds, he lost 0.28 seconds in the next turn to compensate. This was confirmed by telemetry. As a result, although there was technically an infraction, the stewards decided there was no sporting advantage and no penalty should be imposed. »
