On Thursday morning, Aston Martin announced that Sebastian Vettel had tested positive for coronavirus. A dramatic start to the season for Vettel, but good news for Nico Hulkenberg, who once again gets to fill in for a driver.
Hulkenberg's departure from Formula 1 has remained anything but final. Not only did he stay on as a reserve driver for several teams, but he actually got to fill in for drivers affected by the coronavirus several times.
Hulkenberg was called out of bed
On the opening weekend of the 2022 season, it was an immediate hit: Vettel tested positive for coronavirus, after which Hulkenberg was expected at the Bahrain International Circuit in no time. Very short notice, but the German is used to that by now.
"I got called out of bed, got the news, grabbed my stuff and got to work," he told us during the press conference. Since he had only done simulator work for Aston Martin, he expected to need some time to get used to it, but that turned out to be no problem at all.
During the first free practices on Friday he was already able to keep up quite well. Still, he sees the race weekend as a big challenge, also on a physical level. Now that he has had some training time, it is a matter of finding the limit of the car.