F1 facing challenge of endurance

18 June 2015 11:16

Nico Hulkenberg has been in Formula One for six years but has never tasted the success he enjoyed in 24 hours in Le Mans.

The German has never made it onto the podium in 83 grand prix starts but was part of the Porsche team to take victory at the famous endurance race in France last weekend.

Not only did Hulkenberg, who has had five years on the F1 grid and one as a Force India test driver, realise there is more to motorsport than Formula One as the event captured the imagination of race fans.

The world of F1 is becoming increasingly secular, harder to break into as a fan, more difficult to understand and comprehend with every latest penalty dished out to a driver for replacing a piece of kit no-one with a passing interest even knows exists.

The sport knows it is in trouble - meetings between strategy groups, team bosses and surveys conducted by the drivers' own union prove that there is civil unrest over it's future.

The World Endurance Championship, often only renowned for the famous Le Mans race, is starting to build up something of a challenge to the heady heights of F1.

The formula was helped in Britain as Anthony Davidson won the championship for Toyota last year - and the drivers are becoming household names in their own right.

Former Red Bull man Mark Webber also represents Porsche but, in Hulkenberg, the team have a man still in the F1 paddock.

A split deal sees the 27-year-old turn out for Force India and Porsche a move that gives him little time away from either race-track or jet but that has resulted in victory at Le Mans.

Despite having many fans amongst those in the know, Hulkenberg has never had a race-winning car and fourth-placed finishes in Belgium and South Korea are his best results to date.

But, as a relative newcomer to WEC, he has already stood on the top step - and at Le Mans no less, their equivalent to the Monaco Grand Prix.

There was talk of Jenson Button making the move the championship for 2015 before he penned a new deal at McLaren - the 2009 world champion could still end up there next year.

And, as long as it can keep away from the fan-repelling rigours of the F1 rulebook and provide entertaining races much like the Audi/Porsche fight in Le Mans - big-name drivers and big-paying sponsors will be casting more than a fleeting eye at a real alternative.

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A general election, Scottish referendum, hacked celebrity iClouds, Lucy Beale's murderer revealed and the Philae probe landing on a comet, running out of juice and waking up again.

A short selection of the many, many events that have taken place since Mercedes last failed to take a pole position in Formula One.

The dominant duo of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg have made first place, and quite often second, their own over the past 12 months.

It was here, in Austria, a year ago that Williams last broke the Mercedes front-row monopoly - with Felipe Massa taking pole ahead of team-mate Valtteri Bottas.

It did not matter come race day as they were powerless to prevent Rosberg leading Hamilton over the line but at least they dented the confidence and the dominance of Mercedes.

Since then only Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel have managed to take a race win away from the Silver Arrows - and no-one has had the beating of them on a Saturday.

Hamilton has shown his power this year and kept Rosberg at arm's length during the last race in Canada but it would be refreshing to see Williams, or indeed Ferrari, challenge once more in the Austrian Alps.

Source: PA