Nico Hülkenberg is sidelined for the second year in a row, while his former teammate Sergio Perez makes his debut at Red Bull Racing. There was much speculation last year that the Hulk would also be considered for that seat, but now he'll have to settle for the role of analyst at Servus TV, Red Bull's television station.
He doesn't start his career as an analyst with any flashy predictions. Hulkenberg is known on the circuit as 'conservative' and he seems to carry that style through in his comments. "I don't know and I'm not going to speculate about it," he says when asked who he would recommend as the best candidate. Motorsport-Total.com When asked who he thinks will be world champion.
Mercedes has the upper hand
After some further questioning he still places Mercedes in the favourites role, a logical choice of course, given the previous season. Although Hulkenberg is still close to F1 and raced for Racing Point last season, he says he has too little information to say where the teams stand.
If he did know, he would be stupid to share secrets of a certain team with the world. That way he can be sure he'll never work for an F1 team again. Yet the German also mocks himself when asked about the potential world champion: "It's not going to be me, I know that much."