Nico Hülkenberg’s miserable weekend in Brazil ended in disqualification: the first black flag in Formula 1 in 17 years
Nico Hülkenberg caused a rarity in Formula 1 in Brazil on Sunday, as the German was the first driver in 17 years to be shown the black flag, which means immediate disqualification: Hülkenberg had to drive to the pits and park his Haas.
The last time a driver was shown the black flag was in Canada in 2007. At that time, two drivers, Felipe Massa and Giancarlo Fisichella, were penalized for running a red light at the pit exit.
Hülkenberg, on the other hand, was disqualified because he had received outside help during the race. The Haas driver spun in Turn 1 and then came to a stop with the underbody. Marshalls helped him back to the track, but this is prohibited by Article 53.2 of the sporting regulations.
It states: “Any driver whose car stops in any area other than the Pit Lane during a sprint session or race and receives physical assistance resulting in the car re-joining may be disqualified from that sprint session or race.”
In other words: anyone who receives physical assistance outside of the pit lane and is able to rejoin the race as a result will be disqualified.
“I took a little break for refreshments”
“They came, pushed me, and were very happy with themselves,” Hülkenberg describes the scene with the stewards. “They celebrated, pushed me, and said, ‘Come on, let’s go, the race is not over yet’.”
“And at that moment, you don’t think about it and you don’t care,” he says. ‘You just keep driving and deal with the consequences later.’
BLACK FLAG
Nico Hulkenberg has been disqualified for being pushed back onto the track by race marshals after getting beached on a kerb on Lap 28 ❌F1 BrazilGP pic.twitter.com/b0akvI7nC1
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 3, 2024
He was able to find himself in the run-off zone at all thanks to a “short break from attention,” as he explained on ServusTV. “I turned in on the white line,” he admits. “And then, of course, I ended up sitting on it, which is bad luck, of course.”
“If it’s bad luck, then it’s just bad luck, because normally you do a pirouette,” he says, emphasizing that the mistake was not at high speed, but at the end of the braking process. ‘But unfortunately I came to a stop somewhere, couldn’t move forward, needed the help of the marshals and then it was over.’
“Brutally difficult conditions”
For Hülkenberg and Haas, this marked the end of a very “difficult and miserable” weekend. In the sprint, the German had rolled out with a defect, in qualifying he was eliminated in Q1 in 19th place and in the race he was disqualified. And team-mate Oliver Bearman, who stood in for Kevin Magnussen who was ill, was also unable to score points.
“We made a lot of mistakes throughout the weekend,“ he says, annoyed, and speaks of ‘brutally difficult conditions’ in the race and one of the most difficult Grands Prix he has ever driven.
”On the intermediate it was actually quite okay and I was in a train with Pierre [Gasly] and Fernando [Alonso] for a long time,” he says. “It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t fantastic either. But after the pit stop, it all went downhill pretty quickly.”
And to make matters worse, Alpine scored a whopping 35 points with second and third places, moving up to sixth place in the championship despite previously being second to last with only 14 points.
