Hulkenberg reveals Barbie 'allegiance' in film battle

Nico Hulkenberg has joked of his "bad timing" at a new hairstyle in the week the live action Barbie film is released.

The film staring Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as companion Ken hits cinema screens on Friday 21st July - the same day as the Christopher Nolan epic Oppenheimer, a biography of Robert J Oppenheimer, the man who is known as the "father of the atom bomb."

With both films being released on the same day, the battle between them has been dubbed "Barbenheimer" - with Haas racer Hulkenberg unwittingly showing his allegiance.

Hulkenberg has arrived in Hungary with a new all-blonde hairstyle, akin to Ken.

"It's fascinating what a bit of dyed hair can do," Hulkenberg told media including RacingNews365.

"The Barbie movie is coming out and I thought a bit of extra PR for me would pretty handy at this time of the season!

"Actually, I wasn't aware of it, I didn't really play with Barbie and Ken when I was a child - so I just ran into this one and it is bad timing I guess."

Hulkenberg is also expecting a tough weekend for the team, despite bringing some fresh floor upgrades to the VF-23.

"Here, it's very hot, it’s very demanding on tyres so you know, it's going to be definitely a tough weekend for us," he said.

"We have a few little upgrades to the car, on the floor, so hopefully, they can push us along a little bit but I expect the very, tight field again, so every session matters, every lap matters.

"I think Qualifying, for us, with the new rules of how we have to run the tyres, with the Hard in Q1, is probably not favourable for us.

"So there is an extra challenge there, but we'll just take it on."