Hulkenberg comfortable at Haas: 'I'm enjoying myself in this team'

For the most part, Hulkenberg had a fine race in Australia. Towards the end of the race, he even briefly seemed to be on course for his first career podium finish, but that hope was dashed in the chaos of the closing stages. He did, however, eventually manage to finish seventh, giving him his first points lead since returning to Formula 1 after a three-year absence.

"I feel good at the moment ," the German reflected afterwards. "In German we have the saying: I am at peace with myself. I am enjoying myself in this team. The three years away were good, they reset me. That cleared my head again, my perspective has changed, as has my family [Hulkenberg became a father at the time, ed.]. I have a thick skin, don't let myself off the hook so easily. So yes, I'm doing well."

Hulkenberg shocked by moment with Albon

The Australian Grand Prix was eventful, to say the least. Hulkenberg experienced that first-hand when on lap seven Alexander Albon flew off the track and came to a halt right in front of Hulkenberg.

"It's every driver's horror scenario ," Hulkenberg said about it. "You come into a blind corner and suddenly there's a car on the track, which you can't even see properly because of all the dust and gravel. And we are ridiculously fast there, something like 250 kilometres per hour. It could have ended very badly, fortunately nothing happened. I can tell you though: there was a 'Code Brown' for me at that moment. My heart rate really shot up at that moment and I was screaming into the radio."