Jacques Villeneuve Takes a Massive Dig at Outgoing Nico Hulkenberg

There are now just two races left for Nico Hulkenberg in his Formula One career. The German driver was recently dropped by Renault for 2020, in favour of Esteban Ocon. For a while, the 32-year old held out for a potential seat with other teams. Sadly, the likes of Haas and Alfa Romeo were not interested.

Now, 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve is of the opinion that Hülkenberg’s F1 career is over. The Canadian justified himself, saying that the German has done nothing spectacular in his 9 years in the sport.

Poor old Nico Hulkenberg will bid adieu to the Formula One paddock after three seasons with Renault. With no Formula One seat available, and a reserve driver role, not tickling his fancy, Nico Hulkenberg may forced to find a seat outside Formula 1 in 2020.

Villeneuve told Canal Plus, “He also knows that his career has lasted longer than it should have lasted. He has been very lucky that he has always been paid to race. He also knows that his Formula 1 career is now over. There is no turning back It is better to take a risk with a guest you have doubts about than with someone who hasn’t shown much in the last ten years.”

When he debuted for Williams in 2010, Nico Hulkenberg burst onto the scene and was hailed as a great talent. In 2006 he won the title for Team Germany in the now defunct A1 Grand Prix at the age of 19.

He followed it up in 2008 and 2009 with titles in the Euroseries Formula 3 and the GP2 successively. Unfortunately, in Formula 1, Hulkenberg could never really live up to that potential, despite the one pole position he took in Brazil in 2010. Every time he has been in a prime position to grab a podium or even a shock win, he almost always bottled it.

Two races that stand out, supporting this are, the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix, when he collided with Lewis Hamilton. The Second one was at the 2019 German Grand Prix, where he was on the podium and comfortably racing, but slid off.