Jason Watt: Hulkenberg to blame for F1 exit
Jason Watt, a former F3000 winner, says he is not surprised that Nico Hulkenberg's Formula 1 career is ending.
Having lost his race seat at Renault for 2020, Hulkenberg was in the running for drives at Haas and Alfa Romeo but instead will farewell the paddock next weekend in Abu Dhabi.
Watt says the German's ten-year career has been up and down since 2010, but he achieved a "pretty good reputation" by dominating his teammates at Force India.
"After that, the curve stagnated severely," Dane Watt told Ekstra Bladet newspaper.
"For the past five seasons, including 2019, he has finished ahead of his teammate in the championship only once.
"He looked good in 2018 with Carlos Sainz though, so I was excited to see him against Daniel Ricciardo this year," he added.
Watt, however, thinks it is possible Hulkenberg's 2019 form went awry once it became clear to team management that they were moving on.
"Every Dane remembers when Magnussen said no thanks to a contract extension with them and immediately Jolyon Palmer was faster," he said. "The only similar thing about the two cars was that they were yellow.
"I don't think that's what happened with Hulkenberg, but I don't think it's controversial to say Renault was more interested in Daniel Ricciardo."
Watt thinks Haas then turned down Hulkenberg for 2020 because of his "high wage demands". He thinks that is bad news for both the American team and the 32-year-old driver.
"It doesn't do much for Kevin (Magnussen) when Romain Grosjean has those periods of stupid mistakes. So for Kevin's sake, I would have liked to see Hulkenberg there in 2020," said Watt.
"Now it seems that he will end his days in the DTM or Formula E, and in my book he has himself to blame for that."
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When you bad mouth USA and Austin on Netflix you better put on sack cloth and come cheep to win over G. Haas a NASCAR guy (nothing more patriotic than that).
Tom, I don't understand this post. What are you talking about???
A Really Old Racer ( 1970s SCCA regional racer) to another Really Old Racer the assumption that G Haas only considered price tag might be inaccurate. Haas is a very successful business man and racing team owner who understands marketing value. I brought up a moment when a flippant comment made on camera rebroadcast as part of the Netflix special about F1, viewed by millions of potential US F1 fans, could have had an impact. Grosjean has value in the French marketplace for Haas milling tool equipment sales.
Thanks, Tom, now I get it. I didn't see the Netflix series and so do not have the reference. Not to be overly argumentative, I will say that your "millions of potential US F1 fans" might be a bit optimistic. Race viewership this year has averaged only 675,000 over the entire ESPN platform. Interesting enough, Haas CNC sales have increased substantially the past two years with Euro mainland sales comprising well over half their sales. F1 boost???...I hope so. I really want a US team to succeed, hopefully with a US driver in the future, but, considering the Euro business bias, that might not be so important to Haas.
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