Home F1 Hulkenberg no to IndyCar as he regrets leaving Force India after 2012

Hulkenberg no to IndyCar as he regrets leaving Force India after 2012

05/10/2019

Nico Hulkenberg is unlikely to go the IndyCar route as ovals isn’t something he likes to do as he revealed his regret of leaving Force India at the end of 2012 F1 season.

The future in F1 looks grim for Hulkenberg after he lost his Renault seat to Esteban Ocon. He was in talks to make a move to Haas, but that fell apart as the team retained their current driver line-up of Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen.

It would now seem that he has very few options for his future in F1, with his two choices being Alfa Romeo and Williams – but the former is inclining towards retaining Antonio Giovinazzi and the latter has Nicholas Latifi on the sidelines.

However, Hulkenberg remains adamant that his future is behind the wheel of an F1 car and that’s his priority for now. He prompt response was a ‘no’, when asked whether or not he was looking at racing outside of F1.

“I haven’t looked into these options [other series],” said Hulkenberg to the media including FormulaRapida.net/IndiaInF1.com. “I think there has been interest from inside people of the series like Formula E, but I have not really pursued that.

“My head is very much here still. That would be only something I would consider really a little bit down the line if I knew things weren’t going ahead here. Also, as much as I want to continue in F1, for me any move needs to makes sense.

“It needs to be sensible, it needs to be the right deal. I’m not desperate to stay in F1 and just take anything. That [making a good deal] is most important for me.” The German driver also gave his thoughts on a potential move to IndyCar, which he doesn’t want to.

“Generally, ovals, for me is not something that attracts me or that strikes me,” he said. “I have a lot of respect for the drivers who are racing that, but that’s just not my thing, so you can count that out.”

Having had one time where he joined Force India as reserve after being dropped by Williams, Hulkenberg doesn’t think that is possible this time as he feels the times are different as that time he was at the beginning of his career.

Staying with Force India, the German actually regretted his move to Sauber in 2013 after looking at the team’s performances in 2012. He felt he made the wrong move and eventually returned to Force India in 2014 and raced until 106.

“Looking back, I guess leaving Force India at the end of 2012 was maybe not the best move,” he said. “That’s the difficult part of F1 where you always make a decision in the current year not knowing what is going to happen in the future or where the team will be.

“In 2012, the Sauber looked like a rocket, the car was very fast but the beginning of 2013, it was a big struggle. Towards the end we did recover but it was nothing that we expected as to why I changed teams and then on the other side, Force India were very competitive in 2013, so that didn’t go to plan but that’s how it is.”

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