F1 star Nico Hulkenberg has committed himself to his current team by signing a new deal keeping him in a Force India seat in 2016 as well as 2017.
In the past, Hulkenberg has been linked with a few top teams, and on good merit. He’s one of the most talented drivers on the grid and at 28 years old he’s still got a long career ahead of him.
The 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours winner said that he chose to remain with Force India because he knows the team “inside and out and I feel at home here so it made perfect sense to make a long-term commitment. The progress the team has shown over the last two years has really impressed me and gives me confidence for the future.”
The fact that Force India is a…force to be reckoned with in Formula One (pun intended), could have been a deciding factor. Hulkenberg is currently 12th in the driver standings but the F1 calendar might just be kind to his team, with a lot of fast tracks coming up.
Force India sits 6th in the constructor standings, trailing Lotus by just 1 point, which means that by the end of the year, they might just be the 5th best team in F1 – nothing to laugh at since the other four teams are Mercedes, Ferrari, Williams and Red Bull.
Team boss Vijay Mallya, one of Nico’s biggest fans, said that it was “fantastic to confirm him as our driver for the next couple of seasons. He has spent almost four years with us already and in that time we’ve seen him develop into one of the best racing drivers in the world. Nico has the speed, the technical knowledge and the maturity to help us achieve some great results in the years ahead.”
As the team gets better, it will be interesting to see if Hulkenberg can start racing against the likes of Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas on a more consistent basis, without having to worry about his car being inferior.
Story references: Autosport
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