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Hülkenberg concerned with Renault: Need to ask ourselves some serious questions

Hülkenberg concerned with Renault: "Need to ask ourselves some serious questions"

11-08-2019 11:35
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Nicolás Quarles van Ufford

Renault driver Nico Hülkenberg has expressed his concern with the progress his team are making throughout the season, as the German says the team must "ask ourselves some serious questions" after another race weekend without any points in Hungary.

Before the season started, Renault aimed to use 2019 to start closing the gap to the top three teams, leaving the rest of the midfield in their rearview mirrors on the back of a best-of-the-rest season in 2018.

However, despite contracting star driver Daniel Ricciardo, it's not worked out well so far for the French works team, showing flashes of great pace but with a severe lack of consistency.

In Germany, Ricciardo retired with a mechanical failure, while Hülkenberg spun out and crashed while in a promising P4 position. In Hungary, both drivers qualified and finished well outside of the top 10 as well, leaving them in a poor run of form as the F1 takes time off during the summer.

"It's a tough one," admitted the 31-year-old to RaceFans.net. 

“It’s obviously quite below our expectations and our targets.

“I think we need to ask ourselves some serious questions and review a couple of things internally. But there’s been far more lows than highs unfortunately. Not really satisfying.”

Sitting in sixth in the constructors' championship, Renault has less than half of the points than he had at this stage last season. It's not been the kind of progress Renault would have wanted at the start of the season, with teams like McLaren exceeding expectations as well.

"We need to consider how we go about things and where we’ve come the last 18 months with the car. What we’ve been doing and the fact it’s had not that much of an effect.

“We need to ask ourselves how we go about it in the future to make sure updates will really bring some yield and bring us forward.”