What now for Nico Hulkenberg?

Nico has been one of those nearly men. We have seen many of them over the years who many believe could be champions, or sometimes just race winners, but never really got the chance in the top machinery to prove exactly what they can do. Sometimes there are talented drivers who don’t even make it to the sport.

You could include Nick Heidfeld (‘Quick Nick’), Adrian Sutil, Anthony Davidson, Kamui Kobayashi all as never forfiling the potential they came with.

Nico Hulkenberg is the modern nearly man. He has the pedigree though, having come up through the ranks of the A1GP series, along with GP2 he first found a drive at Williams, and even then he was creating headlines by taking an unlikely pole at Interlagos. Having then moved around midfield teams – Force India and Sauber he has often been talked about for front line drives including the second Ferrari seat, and the second McLaren seat when Lewis Hamilton moved to Mercedes. None of those came off though.

Fast forward to 2015, again back at Force India for another in the midfield, he decided to take a risk and take on Le Mans with Porsche. Fernando Alonso was also planning the same move, but was stopped by McLaren. What was to happen would be completely unprecedented, with a current F1 driver winning for the first time in 23 years.

That surely leads to a crossroads and the platform which the German can play with. Get a better drive in Formula One, or make the switch full time to sports cars.

It really isn’t all that mad as it seams to get a better drive. Kimi Raikkonen will be out of contract at Ferrari at the end of the year, and there is still no extension to that, even though both sides seem to be cordial for a new deal. That doesn’t mean that it will happen though, with Valtteri Bottas already being talked up as a contender for that seat, and surely Nico Hulkenberg must be considered again for it as well.

For the top line teams it looks difficult to find another option. Mercedes are now booked up for the next few seasons, and Red Bull on a downward slope would more likely look within towards Sainz or Verstappen. McLaren would also likely do the same, drafting in either Kevin Magnussen or Stoffel Vandoorne if Jenson Button left.

If Bottas did make the move to Ferrari, then a return to Williams wouldn’t be a bad one, as well as Lotus if anything happened with their driver pairing. You would also have to consider a new entrant as well, especially with Audi/VW (who technically he drove for at Le Mans) rumoured to be making moves, or Renault making a constructor return to the sport.

Of course the other way to go is to leave F1 as one of the ‘nearly’ men and make his name in sportscars along with team mate Mark Webber, and Toyota’s Anthony Davidson.

This will be one of the storylines heading towards the end of the year, with a profile raised he deserves more than another season in the midfield.

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