Robert Wickens on causing aborted start in Hungary: “I’m sorry I messed it up”

Mercedes AMG driver Robert Wickens waved goodbye to his already slim championship chances today, after making a mistake on the starting grid, costing him the opportunity of a points finish at the Hungaroring.

The Canadian qualified as the best Mercedes in eighth place. However, at the end of the formation lap, Wickens went to the wrong side of the grid, forcing the start procedure to be aborted, and was sent to the back of the grid by the stewards.

“As a racing driver, you do know where is your grid spot, it’s not something you forget,” Wickens said to TouringCarTimes. “It’s the first time I have made this type of mistake in my entire career. I was following Tom [Blomqvist] and I didn’t realise I was going towards his grid spot.”

“I feel very bad for the team, for Mercedes and for my mechanics, because we had a chance today of scoring some points, not only for me but also for the championships. We had good pace, the car was strong, and we should have got that result. I was 13th by the end of the first lap and I continued pushing, so a healthy amount of points was possible today” continued the Canadian.

Looking back at the season, Robert Wickens feels he could have been in the fight for the title until the end if he would have been more consistent.

“We have to look at how the season has gone, we lost many points with bad weekends in Zandvoort and Moscow, for example. If we are true to ourselves, we threw away many points this season. The only thing I can say is that I gave it everything I had.”