Sauber boss Jonathan Wheatley revealed why Nico Hulkenberg was forced to retire from the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix at the end of the formation lap
The German was set to start the race from 12th place on the grid at Monza, but with two thirds of the formation lap completed, he was radioed to box the car.
“Oh man, you serious?” Hulkenberg asked, before subsequently peeling into the pit lane to retire the car, ending his afternoon before it had even begun.
The DNS prevented the veteran from adding to his impressive points total this year, and leaving the Swiss squad to rely solely on Gabriel Bortoleto to salvage its afternoon.
After the race, Wheatley revealed to media including Motorsport Week that Hulkenberg’s car seemed perfectly OK until just before the formation lap began.
“Yeah, everything was fine on the grid. That was my first pass up and down it,” he said. “And then we did a normal fire-up on the grid and noticed a hydraulic fault.
“You might have seen us about seven minutes ago putting a little bit more hydraulic fluid in the car.
“But ultimately, with it being a new PU, we decided to retire the car to be safe. It’s a shame.
“It was a real shame for Nico, because I’m sure he was capable of points today. And it would have been very good for us, championship-wise, to have both drivers in points.”
Bortoleto’s ‘brilliant race’ salvaged Sauber’s Italian GP – Wheatley
Bortoleto did indeed salvage the team’s afternoon, coming home in eighth place, having started seventh, in what was another impressive showing from the reigning F2 champion.
The Brazilian rookie lost position early on to a hard-charging Lewis Hamilton, but won out in his battle with mentor Fernando Alonso, who retired early with a rear suspension problem.
But Bortoleto couldn’t cope with the race pace of the Williams of Alex Albon, who took seventh, seven seconds ahead.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s always hard as a Team Principal when one driver doesn’t start the race and the other one gets points,” Wheatley said.
“But, look, you can’t take anything away from the weekend. We had genuine pace, I think, this weekend.
“Felt confident and qualifying. I think a tiny little error by Nico in Q2. Otherwise, he could have been in Q3.
“Gabriel put a strong performance in all the way through the weekend and he just delivered a brilliant race today. I think he got everything he could out of the car.”
“Actually, the race panned out as we expected it to. We had to cover Lawson, which probably you all saw. You split the race into two, ultimately, on the Medium and Hard.
“The Hard looked like a really good race tyre today. But then, again, I don’t think I can take away from the fact that Albon had serious pace.”
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