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Hülkenberg finished seventh in Australia, but is there cause for concern for Haas, Alfa Romeo, and Ferrari?
Haas driver Nico Hülkenberg survived a frenetic finish — and a near-collision in the early stages — to come across the line seventh in the Australian Grand Prix. While a post-race protest from the team was denied, the six points were a much-needed result for Haas, and Hülkenberg.
However, what happened just as the race came to a close under a safety car could be cause for worry at both Haas, Alfa Romeo, and Ferrari.
In the final seconds of the Grand Prix, Hülkenberg experienced a power issue with his VF-23. “I lost power for a brief moment. The gears were no longer synchronized,” said the driver after the race. “But then the power came back and I was told to park the car immediately after the finish.”
According to German outlet Auto Motor und Sport, the problem was with the MGU-K in Hülkenberg’s VF-23. The MGU-K — short for Motor Generator Unit – Kinetic — is part of the power unit that can add horsepower when the driver accelerates, or harvest energy and return it to the battery when the driver slows down.
MGU-K failures plagued Haas last season. During the 2022 Canadian Grand Prix Mick Schumacher was in the points before an MGU-K failure forced an early retirement. Both Schumacher and Kevin Magnussen struggled with MGU-K issues in Monaco, and Magnussen was forced to retire during the Monaco Grand Prix last season.
In all, the team endured four such issues over the first nine races of the 2022 season.
Now, here is why this is a problem.
On the micro level, each team is allotted three MGU-K units per season. If they exceed that allowance, they are forced to take a grid penalty in the next race. When a team implements their fourth MGU-K of the season, they are hit with a ten-place grid penalty. Any subsequent MGU-K results in a five-place grid penalty.
With just three races in the books, and 20 left to go, if Hülkenberg moves to his second MGU-K that could be a cause for worry down the road.
But the big picture issue is this: Ferrari is the supplier of power units to both Haas, and Alfa Romeo.
And as we have seen already this season, Ferrari has been hit with a number of reliability issues through the first few races.
Charles Leclerc retired from the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix after his control electronics failed during the race. This was already his second unit, as the team had changed out that component prior to the Grand Prix. So when he took a third control electronics unit ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, he was hit with that ten-place grid penalty.
Any subsequent changes will result in a five-place grid penalty, and as noted, we have 20 races left in the season.
In addition, both Leclerc and teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. saw their cars fitted with completely new power units ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
These reliability issues have hampered Ferrari this season, along with some bad luck. Leclerc was knocked out of the Australian Grand Prix after a collision on the opening lap. As for Sainz, a decision to pit under an early safety car backfired after race officials brought out a red flag. In fairness, it was the right call to bring Sainz in and switch over to the hard compound — race-leader George Russell made the same decision — as that put Sainz in position to get a jump on the pit stops and come out ahead as other drivers were forced to pit.
That decision backfired when the red flag came out, allowing other drivers to make the same change during the stoppage.
However, Sainz managed to fight back into the points and was challenging for a podium when the collision on the late-race restart occurred. He was hit with a five-second penalty, dropping him out of the points.
For Team Principal Frédéric Vasseur, Sainz’s charge through the field after giving up track position is a sign the team is headed in the right direction. “But overall, I think the mood is positive, because we did a mega step forward in terms of performance in the race, and we will build up the rest of the season on this. I will be positive and I will push again and again,” said the Team Principal. “I think overall that we did a decent step forward. Yesterday, we were frustrated after the quali, because we had the feeling that we didn’t put everything together, but the pace was there.”
“We have to take the positives and build up for the next races on this. We had a very good recovery after Jeddah, and the pace was good,” added Vasseur. “Carlos was able to extract it, after the first red flag he was able to come back through the field.”
Still, these reliability issues seem like a dark cloud hanging over not just Ferrari, but Haas and Alfa Romeo. Driver Valtteri Bottas of Alfa Romeo has questioned the team’s race pace in the aftermath of the Australian Grand Prix, but could reliability issues crop up there as well?
The cancellation of the Chinese Grand Prix has given the teams an extended break before the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the end of the month. So these teams have some time to sort out their reliability issues.
Time will tell if they put this time to good use.
