Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsHaas F1 Team

Haas admits interest in Hulkenberg for 2016

Team owner Gene Haas has admitted that Le Mans winner Nico Hulkenberg is on the list of drivers he is looking at for his new F1 team.

The American businessman behind the new Haas F1 Team, which will make its début on the grid next season, gave his latest indications on his preferred driver line-up while speaking at the opening of Haas Factory Outlet Portugal's new headquarters outside Oporto.

"He is a driver from another team, so the possibility of him driving for us depends of his position with his team," said Haas when specifically asked about the possibility of the current Force India driver filling one of the team's race seats next season.

"Anybody who is driving in a Formula One team right now, certainly, is someone that we would be interested in, if he becomes available," he added.

"In the next few months there will be many moves in the teams' line-ups and we will wait to see who is interested in the project we are developing."

Haas has already publicly confirmed that Esteban Gutierrez is one of the drivers he is most interested in. The Mexican drove for Sauber for two seasons but is currently test and reserve driver for Ferrari, which will be supplying Haas F1 Team with its engines next season.

Another former F1 driver and Ferrari reservist Jean-Eric Vergne is also among the names being prominently linked with the team. The Frenchman has 58 Grand Prix starts to his name from 2012 to 2014 with Toro Rosso before being ousted at the end of last year in favour of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz.

"We have a list of drivers in which we are interested in," Haas told FOX Sports at the weekend. "Two of them are reserve drivers from Ferrari so they are certainly a possibility."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.