Nico Hulkenberg May Never Grace F1 Cockpits Again With Sad Alfa Romeo Revelation

Nico Hulkenberg has constantly been a part of the rumor mill in F1 amidst the highly dynamic driver’s market this season. There are massive changes happening at the moment, including Valtteri Bottas’ shocking move to Alfa Romeo.

Hence, it isn’t much surprising that the former Force India and Renault driver may have hoped to gain something out of this chaos. The German also recently affirmed his interest in several teams including Alfa Romeo and Williams.

However, with the latter option firmly shut after the Alex Albon signing, the German had invested his entire hope in the Italian outfit. But, it looks like the 34-year-old has arrived at the end of the road. Hulkenberg officially affirmed that he won’t be a part of the 2022 F1 grid.

What did Nico Hulkenberg say?

Speaking to BILD, the German revealed that he currently isn’t in talks with Alfa Romeo. Hence, with the entire grid almost set, there is nowhere to go for Hulkenberg for the 3rd straight season.

“There are no discussions with Alfa Romeo. That would have been the last option for a firm seat in 2022 after all the other cockpits have been taken,” he said.

Hulkenberg was one of the options for Red Bull last season after he pulled off stunning results at Silverstone and Nurburgring despite the lack of on-track running. But, that unfortunately was as far as he was able to get.

No teams have reached out to Hulkenberg for his services. And considering that he is already 34 years old and much younger and faster drivers are coming up as his competitors for a seat, Hulkenberg’s F1 career looks pretty much over.

Hulkenberg looking for options outside of F1?

The ‘Hulk’ is still feeling the urge to race even though the doors to F1 are pretty much sealed. The fact that he has had 179 starts in F1 has started to attract racing outfits from other series.

Subsequently, Hulkenberg also affirmed that he is assessing a move to other racing series rather than pouting on the lack of opportunities in F1 at the moment. “Life goes on,” he said.

“I have exciting inquiries from other series and I am in no hurry to make a decision. I’ll sort everything and see how things go on.”

Overall, it looks like Hulkenberg will wait until midway through 2022 and see if he could find an opening in F1. If things indeed don’t work out, well, in that case, we could finally see Hulkenberg in other racing series like Indy, WEC, or even DTM. So, what do you think will be the right destination for the German?

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