The Small Picture
Nico Hulkenberg is the star right now, as with his latest delivery of fourth place in Korea in spectacular style, adding to his fifth place in Italy and breaks into the points in recent races with a less than competitive Sauber he is showing he really has what it takes. Describing Korea as "one of my best races ever," and with good reason as he held off two champions in Hamilton and Alonso. Hulkenberg has surely taken a huge step to getting into a better seat for next season, likely with Lotus. This comes as no surprise, given his previous pole position for Williams and general ability since entering the sport, and it makes you wonder how long it will take before someone puts him in a good car and lets him show himself properly. With Ferrari opting for Raikkonen and McLaren rumoured to have turned him down for 2014, you wonder if they'll live to regret their decision as he is surely top of Lotus' hit list now. Hulkenberg is young but with a cool head and enough experience to get the rewards, unlike some of his more wayward peers. The last man we've seen so coolly outperform his machinery like this was the much missed Robert Kubica, still racing in rallying following his devastating accident. Any team with common sense will be thinking of getting him on board. Force India could do well to try and lure him back, though a sideways move is unlikely to be particularly tempting for Nico. Force India and Sauber are likely to be fairly even next year as usual, though with different engine manufacturers as Sauber committed to staying with Ferrari power. Also, Di Rest and Sutil are both good drivers that don't really look to be going anywhere at the moment. McLaren would be foolish to not consider replacing Perez with Hulkenberg since the Mexican hasn't delivered the sort of results required this year, even if the McLaren car hasn't been great. Overall it's great to see Hulkenberg finally getting the right chances. I was disappointed to see him sit out the 2011 with no drive, and then this year move to Sauber who dropped drastically back from their 2012 levels of competitiveness. Finally now we may get to see what he can do, and if he were to get partnered with Massa at Lotus, it would probably be my favourite driver pairing on the grid.