Hulkenberg admits on-form Barrichello’s pace ‘puzzling’

Rookie Nico Hulkenberg has joined Williams team bosses in raving about the form of F1’s most experienced driver Rubens Barrichello.

At the end of a miserable 2008 season with Honda, the veteran Brazilian seemed destined to bow out of F1 on a low.

But the team instead reinvented itself as Brawn, where Barrichello out-performed his teammate and eventual champion Jenson Button in the second half of 2009.

Barrichello, 37, has moved to Williams this year and so far has shown the way to his highly rated young teammate Hulkenberg, the reigning champion of GP2.

“How he drives the car just eight tenths slower than the front is puzzling,” the 22-year-old German told Auto Motor und Sport.

“And then when the car is really difficult, Rubens puts in a lap that really makes me wonder how he does it,” added Hulkenberg.

However, he sees the situation as a positive one.

“He is an experienced driver who last year won races in a winning car.  If I’m with him in qualifying and beating him in the races, it will be a success,” said Hulkenberg.

But if it takes some more time to catch up to Barrichello, Hulkenberg said he is not worried.

“It is a learning year and part of the development process,” he insisted.

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