Nico Hulkenberg loses his seat at Williams
The young German driver Nico Hulkenberg recently confirmed that he will not be a part of Williams after a bellow average debut season in Formula 1. The 23 year old driver was unable to score any vital points and finished in 14th place in the drivers’
standings after scoring a total of 22 points. On the other hand, his teammate Rubens Barrichello performed relatively better as he finished in 10th place alongside Adrian Sutil with 47 points each behind Michael Schumacher.
Rubens Barrichello moved from Brawn GP, last year’s world champions to Williams even though the Brazilian performed exceptionally well. Rubens scored 2 wins and 6 podiums along with a pole position in order to help the team secure the constructors’ title
in its debut year but it seems that the 38 year old just could not pull much out of the limited packaged mechanical system of the Williams.
The same has been the case with Nico Hulkenberg as the young German driver gave a reasonable debut performance and scored the best possible results in the 2010 Williams car. However, it is quite clear that the team wants more finances in order to expand
and since the team announced that they will be signing Pastor Maldonado, the 2010 GP2 champion, there are many rumours that the Venezuelan driver will be bringing in a sufficient amount of sponsors for the team along with himself.
Nevertheless, Nico is not worried about next year as he believes that he will be able to secure a spot in one of the Formula 1 teams before the 2011 season begins. He had been in negotiations with the team since the past couple of weeks and it seems that
Williams was too desperate for money and therefore decided to replace Hulkenberg.
“I heavily regret that. I would have been happy to stay with Williams. I want to thank the team for a great time and I wish Williams all the best for the future,” Hulkenberg said in a statement.
Since the young German was able to pull off a pole position in such a weak car, his manager Willi Weber is not worried at all as he believes that Formula 1 is not dumb enough to leave such a talented driver behind who has made his mark in his very first
season.
“I am negotiating with other teams. Nico will have his seat in F1 in 2011. Nico will leave Williams. They're not negotiating any longer. They have probably already done a deal with Pastor Maldonado,” Weber told
the Media.
Willi believes that the team has already signed Pastor Maldonado in order to receive the significant financial backing from the Venezuelan state owned oil company PDVSA.
Williams team boss Frank Williams confirmed as a result that Rubens Barrichello will be staying with the team for the 2011 season and thanked Nico Hulkenberg for his services for the team.
“We are very proud to have supported him as he secured the Formula 3 and GP2 titles and during his debut in Formula One. At Williams we have for many years tried to bring new talent into the sport, and we are convinced that Nico will go on to great things,”
said Williams.
He wished him the best of luck and believes that Nico will have a bright future. However, he added that Rubens Barrichello performed up to the team’s expectations and therefore, contributed a lion’s share to the team’s score in the 2010 season.
Since the Brazilian driver is one of the most experienced drivers in the sport, the team believes that Rubens’ technical expertise and passion helps the team grow and therefore, deliver the results they are aiming for race after race.
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