"It was good for me to see from the other side": Nico Hulkenberg opens up on what led to his return to F1 with Haas
Nico Hulkenberg opened up on what made him return to the pinnacle of motorsport with Haas in a recent interview with The Race. The German driver discussed his life away from F1 and shared details about his three-year hiatus from 2020 to 2022.
Following the conclusion of the 2019 F1 season, Hulkenberg parted ways with Renault. He joined Racing Point in 2020 as their reserve and development driver and stayed in that role till 2022 with the team being rebranded Aston Martin.
With Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll on the squad, the German driver did not get a full-time driver's role at the Silverstone-based team. After Vettel's departure, the British team brought in Fernando Alonso, which once again shut the door on Hulkenberg, until the Haas opportunity arrived at the end of 2022.
"I learned to live kind of outside of F1. It was actually only really 2020 that I was fully away because 2021 I was already reserve driver for Aston Martin," Nico Hulkenberg said. "So it was one year, and I had the COVID races in 2020, but it was enough time to properly disconnect, just do what I wanted to do really, take the F1 hat off and refresh."
"I always followed the sport closely on race weekends. But it just kind of lit the fire up again, put things into perspective. It was good for me to see from the other side," he added.
Nico Hulkenberg joined the Haas F1 team in 2023 and replaced Mick Schumacher. The American team decided to sack Schumacher after two underwhelming years and bring in Hulkenberg banking on the latter's F1 experience.
The 37-year-old has been the driver to beat at Haas since his arrival. He outshone his teammate Kevin Magnussen in 2023 by nine points to three. The dominance has continued in 2024 as the German ace once again leads with 22 points to Magnussen's five.
Audi move a fairytale for Nico Hulkenberg
Nico Hulkenberg is all set to move to Sauber at the end of this season, Haas announced in a statement in April this year. Audi, which will take over and rebrand the Sauber F1 team completely by 2026, has signed Hulkenberg as their first driver, starting in 2025.
Hulkenberg termed this a fairytale move in the aforementioned interview.
"It's a good story. And also, with that Audi move now, a bit of a motorsport fairytale story. Because you could not expect that from being three years out to what has been written now. It's pretty cool. And I'm proud and happy about it."
Hulkenberg comes with one and a half decades of F1 experience including 217 Grand Prix starts. One can expect his presence on the team to provide much-needed impetus to Audi when they enter the sport in 2026.