Should Hulkenberg ditch F1 for WEC?

Nico Hulkenberg's Le Mans 24 Hours victory for Porsche spurred fresh interest in the World Endurance Championship within the Formula 1 paddock and reignited the debate over whether F1 sufficiently rewards talented drivers who find themselves without race-winning machinery.

It also created something of a career crossroads for the Force India man. Should he hope the profile boost helps convince a top F1 team to finally give him a chance, or should he decide enough is enough, F1 has had its chance and he should head for sportscars full-time?

BEN ANDERSON and GLENN FREEMAN debate what Hulkenberg should do next.

HIS F1 CHANCE WILL COME
Ben Anderson, Grand Prix editor, (@BenAndersonauto)

Nico Hulkenberg winning Le Mans has been good for him and good for Formula 1, and it should serve to remind the world he is too good to give up on his F1 dream, rather than suggesting he should abandon it for a different career.

Victory in such a difficult and prestigious race has reminded everyone that Hulkenberg is a winner, after a long dry spell, while his performance also showed that F1 - for all its faults - still features some of the very best drivers in the world.

The Le Mans offer was the Porsche works squad - a genuine chance to fight for outright victory at the world's greatest endurance race, not 'merely' an opportunity to compete, which must surely be how he feels sometimes (however well-paid he undoubtedly is) when he's plugging away during Force India's less competitive grands prix.

The Force India F1 driver won on his Le Mans debut with Porsche © LAT

Barely had enough time passed for the Le Mans result to sink in before he was back to that fortnightly grind, trying to elevate Force India to the head of F1's ultra-tight midfield fight at the Austrian Grand Prix.

His drive in Austria showed how both Hulkenberg and Force India gained from that Le Mans experience. Hulkenberg came to the Red Bull Ring with self-confidence boosted, and Force India reaped the rewards of having one of the best drivers in the world in top form behind the wheel of one of its cars.

Force India boss Vijay Mallya deserves enormous credit for having the courage to allow his driver to go off and race in another category while still competing in F1. In an age where drivers are often over-protected and forced into specialisation, this was a refreshing throwback to a former era that many fans long to see return.

But this sort of thing could only happen at an independent midfield F1 team like Force India, shorn of the pressure of manufacturer identity, so it's unlikely to be repeated should Hulkenberg move up the F1 grid.

His result at Le Mans, and subsequent showing in Austria, reminds us why it would be a terrible shame if Formula 1 lost Hulkenberg to the World Endurance Championship full-time. It's unfortunate that his career in F1 has plateaued, perhaps the result of some key opportunities missed.

Hulkenberg took pole for the final race of 2010 in Brazil, but was then dropped by Williams in favour of his successor as GP2 champion Pastor Maldonado, and his PDVSA millions, robbing Hulkenberg of the chance to build on his breakthrough.

Hulkenberg has an F1 pole to his name, but has his career stagnated? © LAT

Force India threw him a lifeline, and he should have won the final race at the same track two years later. He was fast enough, but unfortunately half-spun a hard-earned lead away following a safety car period and hit Lewis Hamilton's McLaren.

Had that race worked out differently, his career might have followed a different path. Perhaps his recent Le Mans victory will help it recover momentum, allowing people to see he can still deliver top results, if given the right opportunity.

Hulkenberg needs to draw on his reserves of patience with F1, not give up on it. He is only 27 years old, and there are several drivers in their mid-30s (Kimi Raikkonen, Jenson Button and Felipe Massa, for example) who surely won't be around to occupy seats at bigger teams for much longer.

Hopefully Hulkenberg's Le Mans adventure will remind those teams that he is still a talent worth watching, and still a driver worth giving a shot at the big time.

Hulkenberg still has a great deal to offer F1, and it would be wonderful to see him fully realise his potential at the pinnacle of single-seater racing.

The WEC - and more Le Mans success - can wait.

STOP WAITING AROUND FOR F1 TEAMS
Glenn Freeman, autosport.com editor (@glenn_autosport)

Nico Hulkenberg's Le Mans victory wasn't just a reminder to the watching world of what he's capable of, it gave him the feeling of proper success for the first time since 2009.

Victory at Le Mans put Hulkenberg into the limelight in Austria © LAT

Not since taking victory in the penultimate race of his GP2-championship winning campaign of that year had Hulkenberg experienced crossing the finish line first, taking it all in on the slowing down lap, and then emerging from the car victorious before standing on the top step of the podium.

Post-race, you could tell from his body language (in and out of the car), facial expressions and even what he said to the press that he was blowing out the cobwebs of what it feels like to take a major win. September 2009 to June 2015 is a very long time.

As things stand there's no guarantee an offer is on the table from Porsche, but if one is forthcoming, should Hulkenberg really turn it down so he can keep being ignored by Formula 1's big teams? No.

F1 is rife with conservatism, meaning that since 2010 Hulkenberg has had to rely on midfield teams Williams, Force India (twice) and Sauber being willing to give him a shot based on ability. Meanwhile, drivers who have had their chances, or are past their peak, have occupied top seats based on experience.

Porsche bucked that trend with its third entry for Le Mans, pairing the F1 man with Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber - two talents it already had on its books who were surely destined for bigger and better things even before their victory in the 24-hour classic.

If nobody in F1 is prepared to make Hulkenberg a star, and Porsche is, it's too good an offer to turn down. You can't hang around forever waiting for F1's top teams to finally realise the quality of a driver who has been on their doorstep for six years. So instead go off and try to become a star in a sportscar world that is the strongest it has been for generations.

Should 'Hulk' trade the F1 midfield scrap for WEC/Le Mans glory full-time? © LAT

The counter argument to this is often that drivers can go to endurance racing once their F1 careers are finished - indeed, off the back of Hulkenberg's Le Mans success, several of his F1 peers stated such an ambition.

But at the rate the level is improving in the LMP1 ranks as the WEC continues to grow, the appetite for an F1 driver looking to wind down his career will diminish.

Younger, hungrier drivers are being signed by the manufacturer squads on a yearly basis, and many of those hotshoes will leave a late-30-something (or older) trailing in their wake when it really counts.

Yes, F1 is the pinnacle of motorsport and, even in these times of misery and self-loathing from some quarters of the paddock, it will continue to dwarf the WEC for mass appeal. But is Hulkenberg in F1 for the limelight? He's never come across as that type.

Will his ability ever get the chance to be showcased in F1? Or will he be left to feed on scraps, such as a storming performance in Austria for Force India last weekend (resulting in a sixth place finish), one 'shock' pole position for Williams in 2010 (which was not a fluke - he did two laps good enough for pole) and the what-could-have-been of his race-leading heroics in the 2012 Brazilian GP?

If Hulkenberg does switch disciplines full-time in the near future, that would be F1's loss, not his. He should go, and maybe one day F1 will realise what it let slip through its fingers.