It seems pretty crazy to believe that despite winning every single junior category he has competed in and having absolutely stellar seasons in Formula 1 during 2012, 2013 and for the first part of 2014, Germany’s Nico Hülkenberg is yet to secure a race seat with a top-end team. On Saturday, Hülkenberg will make his first appearance in the World Endurance Championship in the very powerful and very fast Porsche 919 Hybrid at the mighty Spa-Francorchamps circuit, before having his first crack at Le Mans in June. Would a move for Nico Hulkenberg to Porsche for 2016 be a sensible move for him to make given how his F1 career has stagnated? It’s a question many are asking right now.
Hülkenberg was often dubbed the ‘New Michael Schumacher’ until Sebastian Vettel came along, and even won everything going through the ranks, including both the Formula 3 series and the GP2 Series, the latter in his rookie season, earning a F1 seat with Williams for 2010. Whilst we have seen some consistently excellent pace from the German in the past, he has been shunned by the top teams on a number of occasions – most notably by McLaren for 2013, where current team-mate Sergio Perez was selected in place of Hülkenberg. Now 27 years old, it could be argued that Hülkenberg will never reach a top seat in F1, which would be a shame for such a talented driver.
With no driver from any top team looking like they are going anywhere for 2016 as it stands, it looks like Hülkenberg (and others) will miss out on a seat at a top team for next year. Being outraced by Perez in a sub-par Force India (as has been the case so far in 2015) will not help his cause either, as well as the emergence of the likes of youngsters Felipe Nasr, Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz. Perhaps Hülkenberg would be better off looking elsewhere for success and a race victory – something he has not tasted since he won at Algarve in the final feature race of the 2009 GP2 season. His obvious destination if so would not be in F1, but with Porsche in the WEC.
Porsche returned to the top-level of sportscar racing last year, and netted their first victory at the final round of the season at Interlagos. With the likes of former F1 testers Brendon Hartley, Neel Jani and of course – multiple race winner Mark Webber in their roster, Porsche has a fantastic number of highly talented drivers at their disposal before anybody even mentions Hülkenberg. Porsche only look even stronger this year as it fought really hard for the race victory at Silverstone with both Toyota and Audi with one car, whilst the other retired from the lead. It is clear that Hülkenberg will have a far better chance of winning a race with Porsche based on 2015 form than he will with Force India in F1 this year.
I also feel that Hülkenberg’s driving style suits the kind of requirements for being successful in the WEC. As a driver who is able to push lap after lap whilst pulling off some stellar overtaking and defending (the 2013 Korean Grand Prix springs to mind), he would have no problems managing traffic during races. He also seems very good on the technical side of things, and with the LMP1 cars being more technically advanced than F1 cars, Hülkenberg should arguably adapt better than Webber did to life in a closed cockpit.
With the WEC certainly rapidly rising in terms of popularity, competitiveness and the quality of the racing, would a race victory there be just as worth shouting about as a victory in F1? I think so. F1 is the pinnacle of open-wheel racing, whilst LMP1 is the pinnacle of sportscar racing. I do not believe that any one of these or any other pinnacle of a style of motor racing such as the WRC or WTCC is any more or less important than the next, and winning in any of these categories is worth noting. However, it seems unlikely that Hülkenberg will be winning in F1 any time soon barring a crazy race. F1 also continually shoots itself in the foot at the moment whilst the WEC continues to grow substantially for a series not broadcast at all on any major TV network (in the United Kingdom anyway). In five years time, we may see that F1’s popularity has dwindled drastically whilst the WEC’s has grown exponentially, which would put drivers like Hülkenberg more in the limelight if he is with Porsche.
Ultimately, I do believe that Hülkenberg would be much better off ditching F1 and getting a full-time seat with Porsche. With the WEC calendar only consisting of eight races at the moment and no plans to extend the calendar, there is nothing stopping the German doing other stuff on the side as the likes of Andre Lotterer does with racing in Japan. If Hülkenberg stays in F1, he might achieve a few podiums if he stays with Force India, or sidesteps to a similar team as he has done throughout his career to date, but with Porsche, he will likely be the race winner and possible World Champion which he certainly deserves to be. Who knows, maybe one day he will notch up a win at the iconic Le Mans 24 Hours too.
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