Nico Hülkenberg says he is “scratching his head” following Renault’s sub-par performance during Thursday practice for the Monaco Grand Prix.
Hülkenberg, who has secured points across the past three events, was unable to register a lap time in FP1 amid a suspected electronics issue, and finished only 17th quickest in the second session.
Hülkenberg’s best lap time, set on Ultra Soft tyres, was 2.1s shy of Sebastian Vettel’s fastest effort, and the Renault driver was left perplexed at the pace deficit.
“I’d like to know also… I don't know, I can’t tell you at this moment, I’m scratching my head as well,” he said of Renault’s subdued showing.
“I’m a bit surprised with the car and the balance that I’ve found and the grip in FP2, which was very poor and far away from where I expected it to be.
“So we need to really investigate what is going on, I’m sure something is not right, because it felt really poor out there.
“It’s not just that I’m struggling with the balance a lot and confidence in the car but also the grip from the tyres… what we get seems really odd and poor.”
Renault team-mate Jolyon Palmer was also afflicted by gremlins, stopping on track in FP2 with an engine failure, and echoed Hülkenberg’s comments.
“I think we’re not working the tyres well really, I think were missing something here,” said Palmer, who struggled to 17th spot in FP1.
“The balance isn’t so bad but we’re missing grip, so we need to turn on the tyres, where we are is pretty uncompetitive, so we’ve got a day to work out what’s going wrong and sure we can work something for Saturday.
“It could be a set-up issue, tyres are the same for everyone, clearly something on our side that we’re not getting them working, the exact reason and how we’re going to do that is not yet clear.”
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