Audi's day of "firefighting issues" and "miracles" at F1 Miami

Nico Hulkenberg says he’s not surprised the Audi Formula 1 outfit is facing “firefighting issues”, after a series of problems plagued both cars on Saturday at the Miami Grand Prix.

After a problem in the garage and a subsequent leak, Nico Hulkenberg stopped on his way to the sprint grid when his car burst into flames after a spectacular engine blow-up.

He thus logged Audi’s third non-start in four race weekends of its maiden 2026 season.

The Hinwil crew had to change both the power unit and the rear end for qualifying, with Hulkenberg going on to put his car 11th on the grid for Sunday's grand prix.

Meanwhile, having finished in the same position in the sprint, Gabriel Bortoleto was subsequently disqualified for an intake pressure offence, which the team blamed on high temperatures.

Prior to qualifying, a different issue led to a gearbox change that meant Bortoleto was out late in Q1, before he stopped on track with overheating brakes.

"We're a very early team on the power unit side"

“Obviously still a lot of firefighting issues on both cars,” Hulkenberg said. “So more work ahead of us, for sure.

“It's early in the season. We had three races, then we had a big break, and now it's race four. It's still relatively early. Would we like to not have them? Of course not. Am I surprised that we still have some of them? Maybe not.

“We’re obviously a very early team on the power unit side, and we're the only team, only two cars. So you can see why.”

Bortoleto made it clear that the brake issue was a result of the urgency to get the car out after the earlier gearbox problem, with the Brazilian labelling Audi's efforts to even get him into Q1 "a miracle".

“They rushed to put things in place, and they did an incredible job,” he said.

“Because putting a gearbox back in place, the whole rear axle of the car in half an hour, it's such a tough job, and they did it.

“But going back to the track, we had so many problems again. I think it was already a miracle to go to the track.”

He added: “We had to change the whole entire rear axle of the car. And then when you do this in such a short period of time, things can get out of place, and it’s easy that a little brake overheats and you have fire.

“I don't think it's anything to worry about. What can be worried about is what happened before quali, but not during quali. During quali was just a consequence, probably, of what happened to put the car out on track.”