Revealed: Hulkenberg radio fury as 'brutal' race director criticised

Nico Hulkenberg was left heavily disgruntled to miss out on points at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after being caught out by the “war zone” created by Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz's crash.

The duo clashed on the penultimate lap of the Baku race, creating a haze of debris and dust on the straight between Turns 2 and 3.

Hulkenberg was running in 11th place at the time and chasing rookie Franco Colapinto for the final point - however that would have become ninth with Perez and Sainz out of the race.

Race control took some time to neutralise the race under a virtual safety car, with Hulkenberg getting caught out after passing the double yellow-flag zone and losing places to Lewis Hamilton and Oliver Bearman.

When he was informed that the virtual safety car had been deployed after he lost the positions, a dismayed Hulkenberg vented his frustration over team radio.

“No way! ****! ****! ****! ****! No! I’m such an idiot!” he exclaimed.

“I can’t believe that they didn’t call a safety car. Wow. Oh man, I’m lost for words. They’re brutal.”

Hulkenberg 'confused' lack of intervention

Hulkenberg classified in 11th place while team-mate Bearman, who made his Haas debut substituting for Kevin Magnussen, bagged his first points for the team he will race full-time for in 2025.

Hulkenberg conceded he was caught out by race control not opting to throw a safety car intervention straight away.

“It went completely the wrong way,” Hulkenberg told media including RacingNews365.

“I lost the position. A few things happened, I don’t want to go into detail now. I need to process it and look on the replays and [see] exactly what the team go through.

“Obviously, the incident also, a massive crash, massive war zone, debris everywhere. I was surprised it was a double yellow, and then it was back to green, which confused me, and I got caught off guard there and lost positions.

“So a very surreal last two laps, unfortunately, we came out on the wrong side of it.”

When asked if a safety car or red flag should have been used, Hulkenberg stated: “Yeah, to be honest, that was my initial [thought] when I went by, I was like, ‘whoa’.

“How can we still race when there are two cars in a high-speed area with so much debris everywhere?

“So I’m surprised, usually they’re very fast, Neils [Wittich, race director] with that reaction, but today it was more kind of the opposite. So, a bit unusual.”