{"id":18321,"date":"2013-05-21T06:52:36","date_gmt":"2013-05-21T10:52:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/?p=18321"},"modified":"2013-05-21T06:52:36","modified_gmt":"2013-05-21T10:52:36","slug":"hulkenberg-leaves-door-open-for-ferrari-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/formula-1\/hulkenberg-leaves-door-open-for-ferrari-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Hulkenberg leaves door open for Ferrari future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nico Hulkenberg has left open the possibility of a future tie-in with Ferrari.<\/p>\n

\"Nico-Hulkenberg-3\"When the talented 25-year-old made the curious and apparently sideways step from Force India to Sauber for 2013, many sensed a ‘Ferrari factor’.<\/p>\n

Indeed, while Force India uses Mercedes power, the Swiss team Sauber is a customer and close political ally of Ferrari.<\/p>\n

Following the German’s move, Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said: “I am very curious to see how Hulkenberg goes with our engine at Sauber”.<\/p>\n

The start of Hulkenberg’s Ferrari-powered career has been mixed: he has thoroughly outshone Esteban Gutierrez in the sister car and won Sauber’s praise.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the C32 car is struggling.<\/p>\n

Asked if that’s what he expected when he moved from Force India, Hulkenberg smiled to Spain’s El Confidencial: “No.<\/p>\n

“We are behind where we expected, and not producing the results we wanted.”<\/p>\n

As for whether his road towards Ferrari is on course, Hulkenberg admitted: “I don’t know — you’ll have to ask them.<\/p>\n

“These are the early days of the season, but I do want to get back to winning races and challenging, and to be champion one day.<\/p>\n

“To do that you have to be in a big team.\u00a0 The future is open and you have to do the best you can with the car you have every weekend,” he added.<\/p>\n

Hulkenberg, a rare commodity in the F1 paddock in that he is a midfield driver without considerable sponsorship backing, has had a stop-start F1 career so far.<\/p>\n

He made an impressive debut in 2010, scoring pole position at the season finale, but was immediately dropped by Williams.<\/p>\n

He sat on the reserve bench with Force India the following year, returning to the grid in 2012.<\/p>\n

“Three teams in three years, many changes … more than I would like,” Hulkenberg smiled again.<\/p>\n

“What happened with Williams was frustrating — there was no discussion, I was out.\u00a0 You do a good season and lose the seat for other reasons.<\/p>\n

“In any case, it’s in the past and everyone’s race (F1 career) is different — mine with many changes.”<\/p>\n

\u00a9 RIF | GMM<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nico Hulkenberg has left open the possibility of a future tie-in with Ferrari. When the talented 25-year-old made the curious and apparently sideways step from Force India to Sauber for 2013, many sensed a ‘Ferrari factor’. Indeed, while Force India uses Mercedes power, the Swiss team Sauber is a customer and close political ally of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[5262,93,5340,448,114,595],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18321"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18321"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18322,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18321\/revisions\/18322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}