Bortoleto confused by 'weird' Baku form after upgraded Audis knocked out in Q1

Audi came to Azerbaijan with a major package of aero upgrades, and while the team played down the potential performance gains no one in the Hinwil camp could have anticipated how the Baku weekend has unfolded so far.

Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg both failed to make it out of Q1 in P17 and P18 respectively, and for a team that has regularly put a car in the top 10 in Qualifying this season, it was a rude awakening.

The strange thing is that the upgrades appeared to do what they were supposed to do, and while Baku’s long main straight does not play to the strengths of the R26, the car was competitive at Monza earlier this month – so that wasn’t the only factor at play.

Bortoleto looked a little shell-shocked after the session, unable to explain what had gone wrong.

“I think there are many things,” he said. “It's not only power units. I think we lacked grip the whole weekend, and yeah, it just wasn't a great day for us. I think it was not ideal.

“Honestly, I think the whole weekend we have been struggling with pace, grip, straight line [speed], but still there were tracks like Monza where we were almost in Q3, and there are more straights than here. So I think it's something bigger that we need to understand.”

The Brazilian conceded that he’d been happier with the car on Thursday.

“I think it was better,” he said. “But still we were always on the edge of going out in Q1. I didn't expect it, if I'm honest, the first time of the year. I mean, I don't consider Miami, because I had a problem in the car, and I didn't do a proper lap. But it's the first time we don't have the pace.

“For both of us, the whole weekend we had no grip. If you don't have grip, you cannot go fast in the corners. If you don't go fast, you don't make a lap time. It's simple as that, and it's what other teams when they go out in Q1 probably say – they miss grip, they miss downforce.

“I don't know if this is the situation. I feel like we added downforce with the new upgrade – but it's so weird. I don't know what's going on. Honestly, I felt like the upgrade worked, but I don't know if other teams also brought something interesting, or if it's the straight line.”

For Hulkenberg, his Q1 exit appeared to make more sense as a yellow flag and subsequent lack of a tow combined to spoil his chances.

“It's mostly because of circumstances,” he said. “Yellow flag in Turn 15, then the cars in front of me aborted their run, so no tow from 16 to the line, which is pretty penalising around here. So that combination killed us today, and meant that we're out.”

He insisted when asked that there was more to come from the upgrade package.

“Absolutely,” he said. “I'm confident we will understand it better in weeks to come, and optimise it, extract more out of it. It did feel quite encouraging and decent yesterday from the get-go, so I have no concerns or question marks around it. I think it's definitely better, but I think there is still more to learn and extract from it.”

Hulkenberg also acknowledged that the tricky conditions in Baku made it hard to judge the changes: “Exactly, windy. Obviously, quite a power-limited or top-speed track as well.

“Look, it was unlucky. I shouldn't be standing here. Don't know what happened to Gabi, I know the yellow flag, and then not having any car in front, and you lose about half a second on the straight, that puts you out. I mean, that's clear cut. So it was circumstantial.”