Aston Martin announced on Thursday morning that four-time world champion Vettel had tested positive for Covid-19, ruling him out of this weekend’s Bahrain season-opener.
It prompted the team to turn to reserve driver Hulkenberg to stand in for the weekend, giving him an unexpected return to F1 after more than 18 months on the sidelines.
Hulkenberg last raced full-time in 2019 with Renault, but made three substitute appearances for Aston Martin’s predecessor, Racing Point, in 2020 after Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll missed races due to Covid-19.
Hulkenberg revealed he “got called out of bed” with news he would be racing this weekend before packing his bag and making the trip to Bahrain.
“It's obviously a bit of an interesting situation again,” Hulkenberg said.
“I'm just going to take it lap by lap, session by session. I haven't been in a car for five or six days [of testing] so [it will] probably take a few laps to get some of the rust off me.
“We’ll just take it easy and take my time to get used to it again.”
Hulkenberg’s most recent F1 appearance came at the Nurburgring in 2020, when he deputised in the Eifel Grand Prix for Stroll.
Since then, he said he had been doing “just simulator stuff” with no competitive racing. The one-time F1 pole-sitter tested an IndyCar with McLaren last year, but opted against pursuing a move into the series.
He conceded that his “driving fitness is not there” after so long without racing, and was braced to have lots to try and learn in a short amount of time with Aston Martin ahead of qualifying on Saturday.
“There are going to be many challenges,” Hulkenberg said. “It's going to be an overload of information today. So for me, it's just about getting in the car, get up to speed with it and get a good feel.”
Hulkenberg has previously proven himself to be adept when stepping in at late notice. In the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone in 2020, he qualified third and was set for a top-five finish before a late puncture dropped him to seventh.
Although Hulkenberg said he would “know what to expect” jumping in at late notice, the added challenge this year was the new generation of cars, which will make their racing debut this weekend.
“The time away, it's been quite some days, and then the other thing is these cars are completely new,” Hulkenberg said.
“The last time I came back, that was my benefit, I knew what these generation of cars were like and what I was going to get more or less.
“But this is obviously a totally white piece of paper now that I'm just about to find out and hit the ground running.
“So I just need to feel it, drive it and obviously learn as fast as possible. But certainly not an easy situation.”
