Nico Hülkenberg did not attend the Qatar Grand Prix media day because he is suffering from a cold which has left him weak. The Haas F1 driver was therefore rested for this day, in order to rest and regain his strength to race.
“Nico will miss the media day due to a cold, so he is not available for today. This is purely a preventative measure in view of the weekend” assured the team, which is not calling into question its participation in the competition weekend.
If he were to be too ill to ride, Oliver Bearman would take over this Friday, and therefore Saturday morning since it is a Sprint weekend, like at Interlagos where the Englishman had replaced Kevin Magnussen.
The Dane in any case wants to help Haas defend its place in the championship: “It is very important for the team to climb as high as possible in the constructors' standings. At the moment we are sixth, one point ahead of Alpine and three more ahead of RB F1.”
“It's a big difference whether we finish sixth or eighth. It's a very important financial question if we finish eighth instead of sixth. All this money goes to development for the future and so it's clear that it “It's very important for the team that we finish sixth.”
