Hülkenberg on pole to replace Pérez at Racing Point

We left him on the evening of the 2019 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix happy to turn the page. After ten years of presence in the paddock and on the grid, Nico Hulkenberg bowed out at the end of a grueling season for him and his employer Renault. 

Pushed towards the exit following the return ofEsteban Ocon as a starter, the German did not hide his pleasure in taking a breather but he never closed the door to a possible return to competition. The extraordinary circumstances of this year 2020 should allow him to get back behind the wheel this weekend in the United Kingdom. 

Tested positive for Covid-19 ahead of the British Grand Prix, Sergio Pérez had to withdraw from Racing Point. The Silverstone team has an agreement with its engine manufacturer Mercedes to call on its official reserves Stoffel Vandoorne and Esteban Gutiérrez. 

The Belgian is however held back by his obligations in Formula e, whose championship enters its home stretch in Berlin (Germany) next week. As for the Mexican, he no longer drove in F1 since the end of the 2016 campaign and has therefore never taken the wheel of the ultra-fast, high-downforce cars introduced in 2017. 

The former Force India team has therefore decided to set its sights on a former member of the company, who will have only missed a trio of Grands Prix for the moment. Hülkenberg actually spent 5 seasons with the structure which became Racing Point in mid-2018.

The former GP2 Series champion was a test driver in 2011 before being established in 2012. Having left for Sauber the following year, where he copiously dominated Gutiérrez along the way, Hülkenberg returned to spend 3 seasons at Force India at the start of the era of V6 turbo hybrids. 

The German then joined Renault, which he helped to advance in the hierarchy, before the halt last year. Hülkenberg was supposed to commentate on the British GP with German channel RTL this weekend but the misfortunes of his former teammate Pérez changed the situation. Several sources have confirmed to us the existence of advanced discussions between the German and Racing Point, whose team is located a stone's throw from the Silverstone circuit. Practical for having an express seat molded.

If Hülkenberg's Covid-19 screening comes back negative and the numerous papers to be signed are provided on time, which there is little doubt, the German will be at the wheel of the RP20 from free practice 1. There will be would then have a certain irony in seeing Hülkenberg, who is still chasing his first career podium, inherit a car competitive… but currently in the sights of his former Renault team. 

But 2020 has already had much bigger surprises in store for us.