Nico Hulkenberg has spoken after completing his IndyCar test, saying that it was a great experience.
The F1 veteran hasn’t raced since 2019, and doesn’t look like he will return to the grid next season. As such, he has looked at other options, and one of them is IndyCar.
McLaren boss Zak Brown recommended Hulkenberg for IndyCar, and the German driver accepted the offer for a test. Hulkenberg spoke after completing the IndyCar test, and said that the car took some getting used to.
“It took definitely the morning,” Hulkenberg said, as quoted by Formula Nerds.
“There was some other stuff here such as with the aeroscreen, there was not much air coming in and I had trouble with that in the morning, so it was a little bit difficult and tricky to feel immediately very happy in the car from a physical point of view.
“Then by lunchtime, I felt like I made some good progress, and felt a bit more in the groove, and also the lap times and the performance started to come in by then.
“I definitely need to hit the gym! I can confirm that these are steering monsters! Wow. It’s always different when you experience it yourself, but the steering loads are pretty impressive, very heavy.
“With these cars the G-forces are still there, obviously not as extreme as F1 but still there is G going on, and the steering loads combined with that make it a very physical car.”
Fresh starts
Hulkenberg is currently the reserve driver for Aston Martin in F1, but hasn’t raced since the 2020 Eifel GP. He gave his thoughts on what it was like to return to the seat of a race car, and highlighted how IndyCar felt like.
“It’s been a year since I’ve been in a race car, so first of all that was quite nice again,” he continued.
“Obviously quite different from a Formula 1 car, just the whole sensation, the experience, the sound, the seating position – everything is different.
“Working with the team was good. Very professional. Pretty F1-style, I would say. Obviously, it’s different out here over by the pit wall and stuff, but in terms of how they work and what you talk about and everything, it’s very similar to Formula 1,” he concluded.