Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsForce IndiaLe Mans

Hülkenberg hopeful of defending Le Mans title

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Nico Hülkenberg has said he is keen to race again at Le Mans next year, but that no deals have yet been signed to make it happen.

Hülkenberg won the iconic 24-hour endurance race in June driving a third car for Porsche with team mates Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber. Despite gathering a lot of interest from other teams following his victory, he subsequently signed an extension to his existing deal with Force India to stay in Formula One until 2017.

Force India team owner Vijay Mallya supported Hülkenberg's original Le Mans outing between Formula One engagements and would likely do the same again in 2016, which Porsche is known to be keen to reunite its third car 'dream team' next year if possible.

"I think it's likely," Hülkenberg told GPUpdate.net this week. "We haven't really spoken to Porsche yet and done a deal, but the chances are pretty good I think."

Hülkenberg's experience at Le Mans puts him in a unique position to talk about whether Formula One should switch to sportscar-like closed cockpits in the wake of recent fatal accidents such as those which tragically claimed the lives of Jules Bianchi and Justin Wilson in the past 12 months.

"I didn't have any problems to adjust, it's just missing a bit of the airflow and the noise of the air was well," Hülkenberg said in response to reader questions on the site, adding that visibility and driveability had been fine in the Porsche 919 Hybrid he drove at Le Mans.

However, he added that as far as his own personal preferences were concerned, "Single seater racing, in my opinion, should stay open. That's how I see it, that's how I like it."

In contrast to other drivers in the Formula One paddock who have been tempted to look at a possible move to IndyCar racing in the US in the future, Hülkenberg said that open wheel racing on oval circuits held no interest for him.

"It's not something I'm keen on. But that's at the moment, it might change in the future," he said. "I don't know. I haven't really experienced it. I've never been to a race, let alone competed in one, but it's just something I don't seem to like so much."

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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.