F1 News
Vasseur: "Hulkenberg is one of the most talented drivers on the grid"
- GPblog.com
Nico Hulkenberg will unfortunately not have a seat for the rest of the season despite his performance at Racing Point as Sergio Perez' substitute. Nevertheless, many experts, teams and drivers see in him a driver who actually belongs at the top of motorsport. At the moment 2021 is not quite finished as far as the available seats are concerned and Hulkenberg is looking for a return, this could possibly be at Alfa Romeo.
Lineup for 2021 has no focus
However, this is not a priority for Alfa Romeo at the moment, according to the words of team boss Fred Vasseur in the Beyond the Grid podcast. The team is lagging behind in the constructors' championship, where they are in eighth place with only two points. The main focus at the moment is on making improvements and that's why the team isn't concerned with the 2021 line-up.
"It's still a bit too early for us at the moment. I have to discuss it with our shareholders and I need to know what Kimi wants to do. We shouldn't disturb the team now because it wouldn't be good to have those discussions today." In addition, the current state of Alfa Romeo is not immediately an attractive prospect to go to, as they are not really competitive in races.
"At the moment I'm not sure if we can convince anyone to come to us now that we're having such a hard time. We'll have to fix that first and then we'll be able to look at drivers." So it will probably take some time before Alfa Romeo will be working on their lineup for 2021.
Plenty of admiration for Hulkenberg
However, the arrival of Hulkenberg is not being ruled out. Although Vasseur doesn't mention it literally, he has a very high opinion of the German driver. "The general impression of Hulkenberg in the paddock is wrong in my opinion. I think he's one of the most talented guys on the grid."
Whether he will eventually go to Alfa Romeo is of course to be seen, because Haas has also confirmed that they have had conversations with him. For Hulkenberg it is in any case a prospect of a return to Formula 1. A disadvantage of course is that he will have to take a big step back in terms of competition for Renault - his previous employer.