Call from Bahrain.

Nico Hulkenberg had no idea how lucky he was when the phone rang on Thursday.

Then it went fast.

Message from the Aston Martin Formula 1 racing team: Sebastian Vettel tested positive for Covid-19.

The four-time world champion has to stay at home in Switzerland.

So pack your bags and head to the airport.

Anno Hecker

Responsible editor for sports.

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The news of the German-German change shortly before the start of the Formula 1 season on Sunday (4:00 p.m. CET in the FAZ live ticker for Formula 1 and on Sky) had hardly spread in the Bahrain paddock when Hülkenberg became official as a participant in the press round on Friday morning presented in place of the four-time world champion: So first of all, answer questions before driving.

In this case, that's the second best way to start a comeback in Formula 1.

What should the Rhinelander from Emmerich, who is not particularly fond of exhaustive dialogue anyway, be able to talk about?

That it is strange not to be hanging around as a substitute driver at the place of the racetrack, but at best to dream of Formula 1 far away.

If any.

Hülkenberg is a realist, shaped by the toughness of the business.

In the fall of 2010, he sat in a state of disarray in Singapore, fearing his career might end before it had really begun.

At Williams, despite a pole position in Brazil, things didn't go any further on a drying track.

But in the first class it is: he drove 179 races.

Flexible, fast, reliable

With everything that Hülkenberg has experienced, it can already be said that it will probably be the most exciting, if not the toughest, test.

Jumping into Vettel's company car?

That's possible if you're used to the tours.

Hülkenberg most recently drove a Formula 1 racer at the Nürburgring.

That was when the Germans, with a bit of luck in the misfortune of the pandemic, were allowed to host another Grand Prix in October 2020, so it was almost a year and a half ago.

At that time he replaced the Canadian Lance Stroll in Racing Point, the predecessor team of Aston Martin.

The previous summer he had stepped in twice for the Mexican Sergio Perez in the same team, at Silverstone, where Formula 1 held two races in one week due to the pandemic.

Then as now, the virus stopped the regular pilots.

And then as now, Hülkenberg jumped from a standstill, from a Cologne television studio into the car and earned the respect of his colleagues: flexible, fast, reliable.

This time the distance from everyday life to the dream world of a racing driver is not 60 kilometers, but around 5800 kilometers.

The jump symbolizes the change into a new world, into new cars, the driving behavior of which Hülkenberg felt at best on the simulator, as sluggish as they have become with a minimum weight of 798 kilograms, but also as stubborn after the rule reform.

Over the course of six test days, the regular drivers got used to the new company car and adjusted their driving style in order not to give anything away when accelerating, braking and turning.

A tedious process.

"Without testing days in the car, it will be exciting to find out how he feels in the car," said Mick Schumacher in Bahrain on Thursday.

Can Hülkenberg, who tested an Indy Car at the end of October 2021, manage to use the potential of the Aston Martin almost immediately, as he once did at Racing Point?

The 2015 Le Mans winner has never finished on the podium in his 179 Grands Prix, a kind of record.

But nobody in the paddock doubted his core quality, his feeling for the strengths and weaknesses of the racing cars.

Still, it would be a miracle if the competition in comparably fast cars couldn't shake off the old acquaintance in the AMR 25;

first of all Vettel's teammate at Aston Martin, Lance Stroll.

If it were to happen, then Vettel would not have to worry.

But in modern Formula 1, which hardly tests any more compared to the Michael Schumacher era, every kilometer driven serves as a welcome learning aid in both training and racing.

Especially at the beginning of a season, especially at the beginning of a new racing car era like this year.

Because the second race in Saudi Arabia follows a week after the start in Bahrain, Hulkenberg has time to get used to it.

Provided that Vettel does not recover as quickly as the Australian Daniel Ricciardo, who left the virus behind in time for the premiere in the kingdom.

"It's very important to be there from the start," says the Australian after his difficult start at McLaren last year.

It also took Vettel longer to get going at Aston Martin in 2021.

And so the cold wind under the blue sky on Thursday was like a portent.

He blew desert sand onto the racetrack, into the pit lane.

It may well be that the Aston Martin gearbox is crunching.