Nico Hulkenberg - The Forgotten Man of Motorsport?

[Navoan]

This is in plain words completely wrong.
There was a time in 2019 where Hulkenberg was considered a possible replacement for "one of the Haas drivers".
This was afterwards acknowledged by Haas teammanager Gunter Steiner - after Grosjeans 2020 season had been officially secured.

At the same time Kevin Magnussen gave several interviews where he without any reservations(!) acknowledged that as a driver he considered Hulkenberg very skilled and experienced.
And he would himself have absolutely no reservations being teammate with Hulkenberg.

When the king of mid field is available for the upcoming season, the other mid tier teams are of course considering the option of driver changes, that said. The official reason why he didn't get picked for Haas, was Gunter, didn't blame Grojeans effort during 2019 - "The car was bad this year, we can't blame the drivers, they did what they could" a quote from Gunter at the end of the season.

The Magnussen interviews are a joke, of course he cannot go out and say i would never race with this prick Nico Though it would be a nice drama!
I remember when the journalists asked Nico, they kinda caught him of guard, he didn't expect to be linked towards Haas or asked the question.. So his first face gesture was HELL NO, but he quickly said something like "Hass is a good team bla bla bla. Magnussen is a strong driver bla bla bla.. our history is water under the bridge

But i would love to seem his at Haas, his a way better driver than Grosjean, it would be a huge boost in talent.
Yet, i also see signs that Nico and Kevin would have even more contact compared to Kevin and Grojean.

 

[BrunoBæ]

So his first face gesture was HELL NO, but he quickly said something like "Hass is a good team bla bla bla.

Im probably not as good as you to 100% tell peoples inner thoughts taken from their face expressions.
And I admit that ones experience watching telly could be greatly enhanced - using that skill.
No reason to produce fantasy movies anymore. Because you can produce them yourself using that skill.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: The discussion fact vs fake fact could also be overruled and solved this way.

 

[Koen Verlinde]

He won Le Mans 24 Hours, he won't be forgotten to me. Not so many F1 drivers of the last 25 years can say that.

 

[turbo86]

LeMans is not what it used to be and winning it means pretty much nothing anymore. Nowadays it's just a glorified 24h test of fuel consumption and tire testing. And for the drivers is yet another fat paycheck, nothing more. At least for the big boys. Only the amateurs value it nowadays. Simply completing one is a big deal for them.

 

[Typ190]

Not really fair to act like that when teams have not given him great machinery. He got a pole in a Williams that had a technical issue that forced him to retire, was on track for a podium when a Caterham screwed him. He and Perez have been the kings of the midfield (now with Sainz), which is not what I would call "lackluster."

also people keep pointing out how perez got podiums when hulk didnt.
but where did it lead perez? its not like perez has suddenly been offered a top seat at any team. he only had a single year in a top team, and that top team turned out to not even be a top team in 2013.
lets be real here, even if hulk scored a podium or two like perez, would he have gotten a top seat regardless? argubly not. red bull is reversed to red bull program drivers which hulk was never part of. merc had rosberg and hamilton, two drivers which merc was completely happy with and no matter what hulk did, would have never gotten that merc seat. hulk was in contention for the 2013/14 ferrari seat (great season for him btw, outscored perez by nearly 40 points despite perez podium, but i guess that counts for nothing) but ferrari decided for massa in 2013 due to him having a decent performance when it counted and decided for alonso in 2014. so hulk signed a long term contract with force india.
that contract was up by the end of the 2016 season where ferrari was happy with their seb/kimi pairing, lewis was happy in mercedes and red bull still only takes red bull drivers.
so suddenly rosberg retires and a top spot is open. and hülkenberg was actually one of the drivers mercedes tried to contact. the day after rosberg retired, mercedes contacted renault and tried to see if they could buy out hulks contract since hulk had already signed a 3 year contract with renault. renault said no and that was the end of that story. of course hulk wasnt the only driver who was contacted by merc, it is worth mentioning what could have been.

my point is, opportunities at a top team are very very rare and there are plenty of drivers who deserved the shot but never got it due to simply unlucky timing. you all love to mention how perez got the podiums that hulk didnt (not gonna go in-depth about that one but hulk had plenty of qualities that perez didnt) but perez just like hulk has never gotten a shot at a top team (besides mclaren 2013), so its not like all those podiums have gotten him anywhere.
hulk is the modern day heidfeld, a very fast and a very consistent driver who should have had a shot but never has gotten one. it is an extremely lazy argument to say "hes had his chances at a podium but never got it" and therefore assume that hes not worthy of a top seat. we are talking about very few races, 2,3 or 4 races where he couldve gotten a podium. so youre gonna judge his entire career that consists of 177 races based on 2-4 races? what about the 173 other ones? do they not count? to me the average race counts far more than a rare standout race. you would be stupid to consider somebody like maldonado or stroll better than hulk just because they have a single podium.
and it is worth mentioning he did win le mans in one of the most competitive le mans races. 8 hybrid lmp1 cars competed in that race and his team came out on top.
i really hope he returns to f1 in 2021, hes still better than most of the f1 drivers.

 

[Ghiaman1334]

Who can say? It is a shame he never even got a podium. I have a couple ideas.
1 - Nothing. This year at least, he may take time away from driving to work on other ideas and parts of his life, like family, recreation or perhaps an autobiography, as well as trying to initiate talks with racing teams he sees fit for him to drive with in 2021. Quite the passive choice, but if you had been constantly battling against G-forces willing to tear your face to pieces, wouldn't you take the opportunity to just... not?
2 - TV presenting. Old F1 has-been drivers, though I wouldn't call him that quite yet, tend to end up on TV doing the talking, if my UK experience is anything to go by. Coulthard, Chandhok, Brundle, Webber, Palmer (again a has-been outlier), and of course Anthony Davidson as glorified by Codemasters, have all shown that openings are there for those who have the experience. It would even keep him present on the pit lane so he might be interacting with other teams who might consider him for 2021 or later if openings come up. He could end up on a German sports, F1 or general news team reporting on F1 either editorially or as a live commentator, although we Brits love confiscating stuff from other nations, and as shown with Chandhok and Webber, old F1 drivers to present Sky or BBC coverage is no exception.
3 - Probably more a step on from idea 1, but Formula E? Quite a few ex-F1 drivers are on the current grid, including Massa, Vergne, Buemi, the list goes on and on. I imagine the idea of Formula E originally looked like a downgrade to F1 drivers in the early years, but now it's more popular, publicised, and the electric revolution in motoring seems a maximum, in some countries, of only 20 years away, some as close as 15 or potentially 10, the idea could be quite tempting for someone scorned by underachievement in the Old Etonian of motoring clubs.
4 - WEC. Surprised it took me until 4 to get this far. WEC has always played host to big names in motorsport, especially F1, once those drivers start skirting off their peak and dropping off the grid. I imagine the Hulk may well be eyeing up a seat at Toyota, Audi or Porsche as we speak, or even one of the GTE manufacturers like Ford.
5 - Rally. Normally a Finnish F1 retreat, quite a number of drivers either from or interested in F1 have taken up the task of abandoning the road for the chance to splash some mud and rip the handbrake. The antithesis of F1 has been popular with drivers like Hakkinen, Raikkonen, Sainz Jr (admittedly following in his old man's offroad tracks) and Kubica, and even the legends of Prost and Senna. It would be no surprise to me if he signed with someone like Hyundai, Skoda or M-Sport.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

Interesting ideas, but aren't Porsche and Audi out of WEC? I do not follow it closely, so they may still be in. As for rallying: over here in Germany, road and off-road are about as far away as sailing and driving a car. To me, as a German, the thought never even crossed my mind though I live just down the road from Estering, Germany's top rallyx venue. It is considered different worlds here and someone like Ekstrom, who did both simultaneously, is considered exotic.

 

[Ghiaman1334]

Interesting ideas, but aren't Porsche and Audi out of WEC? I do not follow it closely, so they may still be in. As for rallying: over here in Germany, road and off-road are about as far away as sailing and driving a car. To me, as a German, the thought never even crossed my mind though I live just down the road from Estering, Germany's top rallyx venue. It is considered different worlds here ans someone like Ekstrom, who did both simultaneously, is considered exotic.

I don't really follow WEC either, so I'm unsure, I was just mentioning teams I knew were in it.
Interesting point about offroad racing, so maybe not that, though who knows, maybe he'll branch out.