Audi’s German driver, Nico Hülkenberg, once again left the 2026 F1 Austrian GP outside the points zone. Starting from P14 on the grid, Hülkenberg finished the Grand Prix in P12, behind his teammate Gabriel Bortoleto.
Although the team brought a new aerodynamic package to the Red Bull Ring for the 2026 F1 Austrian GP, both Audi drivers missed out on the top ten.
Being stuck in traffic at the 2026 F1 Austrian GP
Nico Hülkenberg’s race was mainly dictated by his track position and Audi’s race strategy.
Attempting to do a tyre offset from P14 lower, Audi chose a longer opening stint to create an advantage for the second and third stints at the 2026 F1 Austrian Grand Prix. However, due to Spielberg’s short layout, this strategy put the German driver directly into the path of the leaders, costing him a significant time loss under blue flags.
Hülkenberg stated that the car’s pace wasn’t the main cause of his 2026 F1 Austrian GP result. The German driver disagreed with the notion that the car’s pace was simply not good enough.
According to Hülkenberg, his Audi R26’s pace was very strong when he had free air. But due to the top runners’ coming by, he couldn’t reach the points zone, and the strategy didn’t deliver the intended result.
Nevertheless, the team’s race pace was very close to Racing Bulls, according to him.
“I disagree. It’s just obviously if you start [far] back, it’s difficult to make progress. Then obviously we, or especially on my side, we did a late first stop trying to create a tyre delta for later, which I think worked in a way, but in a way, also not because then all these blue flags came across. It came happened from all the top eight cars, quite uh yeah. Losing a lot of time there obviously, and you can’t really make progress anymore so.
“But I think from what I heard, I think the pace was really strong when I had free air. But yes, I think we need to start on par or ahead with the Racing Bulls, and we can, I think, match them in pace.”
Midfield reality
Audi came to the 2026 F1 Austrian GP ready with an aerodynamic upgrade package, aiming to close the gap to the midfield teams.
While Hülkenberg’s teammate Bortoleto suggests that the car’s baseline chassis performance alone should theoretically place them higher up the grid. the German driver offers a more measured and realistic assessment of where Audi truly stands.
Although both Audi drivers couldn’t gather points for their teams at the 2026 F1 Austrian GP, their performance on Spielberg confirmed that the car can compete on pace with its immediate midfield neighbors.
However, a significant performance deficit still separates them from the front runners.
“It depends who you’re looking at. If you’re looking at the other midfielders, then yes. If you look a bit further up the grid, there is still work to do.”
Power unit problem and the bigger development picture
Audi’s central challenge in its debut season is still mainly about its power unit. The Red Bull Ring’s long straights exposed the car’s straight-line speed deficiencies.
Nevertheless, Hülkenberg has a broader development prospect for Audi R26’s improvement, beyond its power unit. The German driver explicitly stated that the team cannot view engine development as the sole solution to their current performance gap. The development must spread across all departments of the car, including aero and chassis side.
“I think there’s definitely still a lot of work to be done there going forward. But I think on the chassis and the aero side as well you know, it’s not like we can rest on that side and just rely on that the power unit side is gonna fix it for us. We need to work full steam and very focused on on both fronts.”
