Interview
Hulkenberg reveals: Was it ever possible to join Verstappen at Red Bull?
- Ludo van Denderen
It is no secret that Nico Hulkenberg and Max Verstappen get along well. Sometimes, for instance, they travel together in the latter's plane to Grands Prix. They were never teammates, although Hulkenberg - who is moving from Haas F1 to Sauber/Audi next season - would certainly have liked that, he says in an exclusive interview with GPblog.
There was once a (very persistent) rumour that Hulkenberg was a contender to become Max Verstappen's teammate at Red Bull Racing. True or false, that's the big question? Hulkenberg immediately has to think hard: "I think there was, when was that? The end of 2020 when Checo [Perez] won his race in Bahrain. There were some discussions there, but obviously not clear enough. And then, when Checo won that race, he was so convincing that there was no way around him for Red Bull. I don't feel that was ever really realistic or going to happen."
Would Hulkenberg do better than Perez?
Hulkenberg's current season is going very well. For example, the German finished sixth in the last two Grands Prix, a sterling performance with the Haas. In these races, he was faster than Sergio Perez, who still competes for Red Bull. Like any driver, Hulkenberg must have thought about at some point how he would do as Verstappen's teammate at the Austrian stable.
"Well, it's always tough to judge from the outside," the experienced driver responded. "You don't feel the car, you don't see the car, but obviously he's in one of the best cars and he's having a tough time at the moment, especially the last couple of weekends. I'm sure he's not happy with what has happened and where he was. But of course, it would have been an interesting project to be a Red Bull driver in that car and next to Max, which is also the ultimate challenge. Max is probably the fastest driver that we've had in decades. It's obviously very tough to be next to him and be his teammate," Hulkenberg explained.