Hulkenberg staying 'on the ball' despite F1 standstill

Nico Hulkenberg is keeping his ear to the ground during motorsport's forced break, hoping he'll be in the right place at the right time when life returns to normal.

The 32-year-old is on the sidelines this season following his replacement at Renault at the end of last year by Esteban Ocon.

The man who holds the unenviable record of starting the greatest number of Grands Prix without ever achieving a podium finish is currently keeping himself safe in Monte Carlo where he resides and where life has also been brought to a standstill by the coronavirus pandemic.

"There is a curfew from ten in the evening to five in the morning," he told Germany's Auto Motor und Sport.

"This is monitored really closely and I've been warned before. Only supermarkets and pharmacies are open. You just have nothing to do.

"During the day you can go out, take a walk or sit in the sun. But at some point you've walked all the streets in the city.

"The possibilities are very limited. But it's not quite as restricted as in France, where you have to have a pass to move around. You don't need that in Monaco."

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Despite the confinement, the Hulk is keeping himself in shape, although the workouts are no where near as intense as they were in the recent past.

"I'm still training, of course not quite as intensely as when I was driving actively," je said.

"In the past six months, I have taken it a little easier, enjoyed life a bit more, had a glass of wine and eaten well. That's why I'm two to three kilograms above normal.

"But I'm not completely out of shape because of that. My running form is still okay. I recently tested that. Of course, the pressure is not there right now. I knew that nothing would happen on the racing front in the first six months anyway.

"So, I took it a little more relaxed. For me this is now an orientation phase in which I observe everything, but also simply do the things that I feel like doing, although this is limited by the coronavirus."

Hulkenberg admitted that he did not know if the current standstill would make his task of potentially returning to F1 in the future easier or more difficult. But

"Everything is out of balance from the normal rhythm," he acknowledged. "The 'silly season', the talks aren't taking place at the moment.

"Without a race, nobody can stand either positively or negatively. We are in a state of limbo.

"At the moment everything is just speculation. It is not possible to predict how the cards will fall.

"The situation is new to everyone. If the season starts, many questions will arise. So I can only stay on the ball, watch and hope that I am in the right place at the right time.

"Therefore, we are all just passengers at the moment. When the world starts spinning again, it will show what is going on.

"It's still early in the year, I really can't imagine that there won't be a Grand Prix this season."

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