– “I think with a completely normal, regular start, points would have been possible,” says Nico Hülkenberg after his another eleventh place in Japan, which meant he once again came away empty-handed and continues to wait for his first point for Audi.
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But the start once again ruined Audi’s efforts: Gabriel Bortoleto lost four positions and fell back from ninth on the grid to 13th, Hülkenberg himself had started in 13th but found himself in 19th position behind a Cadillac after the first few corners.
“We know that this is something we have to work on as a team,” says Bortoleto, who was also unable to score any points in Suzuka despite starting from the top 10. Hülkenberg also finds the situation “naturally disappointing and frustrating” and says that Audi must “get on top of the situation.” “There is definitely still a lot to do on that side.”
Binotto: No obvious thing to fix
What exactly the problem is, that is the question. Unlike Mercedes, where the poor starts in Suzuka were also due to the drivers, at Audi the car seems to be the problem. “Of course I know I had a poor start, but I don’t know the exact details at the moment,” says Hülkenberg. “I have to look at it first and talk to the engineers.”
Bortoleto also suggests with his statements that it is more up to the team to find something: “There are teams that have developed the car in a slightly different direction and worked on it to enable better starts,” said the Brazilian.
F1: Japanese Grand Prix (Suzuka) 2026
“I also don’t think all teams thought that pulling away would be so difficult. For us, it’s been terrible so far. We know it’s very difficult for us and we have to improve there.”
Mattia Binotto, who took over the role of team principal after the departure of Jonathan Wheatley, wants to fix this situation as quickly as possible, as it was not Audi’s first poor start this year. “So it’s definitely not one of our strengths,” he admits.
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Only: “The reason why this hasn’t been fixed yet is that it’s not an obvious thing that you can just fix.”
Starts have “top priority”
Nevertheless, according to the Italian, solving the start problem is “top priority” for the team, “because we had another good qualifying, and there’s no point in starting in good positions if we lose all the places again when we pull away.”
“In a way, it’s good for us now that two races have been canceled,” Binotto continues. In the break until the next race in Miami at the beginning of May, Audi now has time to reflect on the start of the season so far and address problems.
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“So far, the start of the season has been characterized more by very reactive measures. Since the winter tests, we simply had so much to learn as a brand-new team. We had to solve reliability problems and actually had no time at all to even think about further developments. So optimizing the start will be one of the focuses in the coming weeks.”
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But how quickly can improvements be found? “I think we can improve a bit, but not reach the level of the Ferraris in the short term,” says Bortoleto. “I think that’s very difficult. We’ll probably still struggle a bit compared to Mercedes as well.”
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