Nico Hulkenberg is in the final year of his contract at Haas. And if rumours are to be believed, he may not be signing an extension.
You might call Hulkenberg a ‘journeyman’ in F1 terms. He’s racked up over 200 Grands Prix in an F1 career that has spanned 14 years and taken in five teams.
He started out with Williams back in 2010, and while he dropped into a reserve role with Force India in 2011, they promoted him to a full-time drive a year later. He had two spells with the Silverstone-based team, interrupted by a year with Sauber in 2013.
The German left in 2016 to join Renault, but it looked as if he might have driven in his final Grand Prix when they axed him at the end of 2019. Esteban Ocon arrived as his replacement.
Hulkenberg stood in for five races for Racing Point and Aston Martin across the next three years, but he then received a call from Haas over a permanent return to F1. He accepted, and formed a partnership with Kevin Magnussen.
But now he’s attracting interest from elsewhere. As they prepare to take over the Sauber team for their 2026 entry, Audi are pushing hard to sign Hulkenberg.
What Nico Hulkenberg had to say privately about joining Audi
Speaking during Sky Sports F1’s coverage of qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix, Croft shared details of a conversation with Hulkenberg on Thursday. He says the 36-year-old was tight-lipped on the possibility of changing teams, but refused to rule it out.
“The paddock rumours suggest [that Hulkenberg is going to Audi],” Croft said. “He was being rather coy with me when I mentioned that to him on Thursday. He just smiled and said ‘we’ll wait and see, we’ll wait and see’.”
Out on track, Hulkenberg bagged an impressive ninth place to take a 3-2 lead over Magnussen in the Haas head-to-head. He edged out Valtteri Bottas in Q3, and might just be taking his seat for next year.
Who could partner Nico Hulkenberg at Audi?
Audi don’t seem particularly enthused by the idea of keeping either Bottas or Zhou Guanyu for 2025. That means we could see two new drivers in the Sauber cars next year.
Their vision appears to be a partnership between Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz. Helmut Marko says the Ferrari driver, who’s been sacrificed to make space for Lewis Hamilton, has received a giant offer from the German brand.
And according to Martin Brundle, Audi are pressuring Sainz’s camp as they push for a quick agreement. The 29-year-old may have reservations about joining a team who have yet to score a point in 2024.
If he does say no, then there’s a long list of alternatives. The name at the top might be Sergio Perez, who still needs to convince Red Bull to re-sign him.
Elsewhere, RB’s Yuki Tsunoda, who doesn’t appear to be in contention to be Max Verstappen’s teammate, is a possible candidate. Alpine duo Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon might also have their eye on the possible vacancies.
The post 'When I mentioned that to him': David Croft shares what Nico Hulkenberg told him about potential Audi move appeared first on F1 Oversteer.