In 2019, Daniel Ricciardo moved to Renault F1 and partnered Nico Hulkenberg, performing very successfully, but Nico’s contract was not renewed for the following season – Esteban Ocon was preferred at Enstone.
In an interview with GP Racing, Nico explained how the atmosphere changed when the team failed to meet the expectations that came with the arrival of a well-known racer.
Nico Hulkenberg: “It wasn’t difficult to be Daniel’s teammate, but that year there were some not very positive events for me in the team related to the leadership.
If you invite a strong driver, you have to convince shareholders and pay a high price for him. But if the performance of the car is not what you expected or what the management promised, the pressure increases.
As a result, some strategic decisions were made that were not successful for me. In Montreal in particular, I was given the task of holding on to seventh place behind Ricciardo. This moment became one of the turning points.
The season had been difficult so far, but I didn’t understand what caused the decision to freeze the positions. With newer tyres I could overtake him without any risk. Looking back I realise that I should have ignored this order. Of course they wouldn’t like that, it would cause friction. So what? There is friction all the time, but the season goes on, you get to the next race and everything is quickly forgotten.
In the second half of the season, I didn’t feel supported by the management anymore. What we had built up over the last two years seemed to dissolve, which affected my results. It’s funny that five years later, Cyril Abiteboul is no longer in Formula 1. I left too, but Frederic Vasseur helped me come back and I’m still here.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
