Force India

Formula One team Force India were put into administration on Friday ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, but they will still race at the Hungaroring.

Per Matt Morlidge of Sky Sports, the Silverstone-based team have been allowed to continue until a new owner is found after going into administration following a High Court hearing in London. 

Force India reportedly owe money to "engine suppliers Mercedes and driver Sergio Perez," while a number of potential buyers have been mooted, including Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll, Morlidge added.

Perez and team-mate Esteban Ocon sit 10th and 11th, respectively, in the 2018 driver standings, while Force India are fifth in the constructor standings.

Since both drivers retired at the French Grand Prix on June 24, the pair have finished top 10 in each of the last three races, a trend they will hope to continue on Sunday in Hungary.

With the future of the team in jeopardy, Ocon's link with a move to Renault for next season is only likely to strengthen, per Adam Cooper of Autosport.

The French driver has been racing for Force India for the past two seasons but is on loan from Mercedes.  

Never before had a Formula One driver's downfall been celebrated with such unbridled joy.

Little more than a year after McLaren chose him—not Nico Hulkenberg, not Paul Di Resta—to lead them into life after Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Perez was gone, deemed to have less ultimate potential than a driver without a single grand prix appearance to his name.

The confirmation of Kevin Magnussen's promotion alongside Jenson Button in November 2013, a matter of weeks after securing the Formula Renault 3.5 championship, had left Perez with precious little time to find a race seat for the following season.

And as he faced the end of his F1 career at the tender age of 23, everyone—spectators, observers and, most despicably, his fellow drivers—couldn't wait to rub his nose in it.

Kevin Magnussen, a joy to see him step in F1! F1 was fair today, talent over money, this will show them talent is still needed! Push bro!!

— Antonio Felix da Costa (@afelixdacosta) November 14, 2013

After years of helplessly watching so-called pay drivers coming over here and taking their jobs, this, at last, was payback.

A significant, potentially precedent-setting shift in priorities. A welcome reminder that F1 teams still did make signings based on talent over money.

Talent. Over. Money.

From the moment he fell into the Force India safety net around a month after being replaced by a rookie, Perez's career has been almost entirely geared toward dispelling the myth that he is little more than a dirty, grubby pay driver of Pastor Maldonado-esque proportions.

In an accommodating, warm environment—surrounded by "very good people" who "do their job properly" in an apolitical atmosphere, as he told Motorsport.com's Darshan Chokhani—Perez has matured beyond recognition after finally finding himself a home.

With four podium finishes in less than three seasons, he is by far the most successful driver in Force India's relatively short history and, having consistently outperformed a team-mate of Hulkenberg's calibre in recent years, is now regarded as one of the most polished performers outside of a leading team.

A driver with plenty of talent—and with plenty of financial support for good measure.

Such was the extent of Perez's transformation that he had seemed set to earn that rarest of opportunities—a second chance with a front-running team—for 2017, with the Mexican strongly linked to a move to Ferrari during Kimi Raikkonen's now-traditional mid-season crisis.

But on the day Raikkonen's latest new deal was announced ahead of the British Grand Prix, Force India team principal Vijay Mallya revealed Ferrari were never a genuine option for Perez.

He told Autosport (h/t Eurosport) his driver had signed a contract extension "several weeks" earlier and would be remaining with the team for a fourth consecutive season in 2017.

Only that wasn't exactly the case.

As reported by Autosport (h/t Eurosport), Perez had agreed a new contract with Force India, but "an escape clause" created an uncomfortable situation whereby his personal sponsors—including Mexico's Telmex and Telcel brands—had the power to take him wherever they wanted for 2017, opening discussions with Renault and Williams.

As the saga dragged on and on—per Sky Sports' Matt Morlidge, the driver initially intended to resolve his future during the summer break but was forced into delay after delay—the backers became increasingly disrespectful toward the team who had provided him with so much since rescuing his career.

And, in trying to secure the best possible deal for Perez, they were inadvertently harming the reputation he, through the quality of his on-track performances, had worked so hard to repair following the damaging McLaren experience.

Ahead of the recent Malaysian GP, Perez aired his frustrations with the protracted negotiations, warning he would "look somewhere else" if an agreement was not reached imminently, per ESPN F1's Lewis Larkam, before his one-year contract extension was finally confirmed hours after the Sepang race.

Even then, though, the mood emerging from Force India strongly suggested the driver's cronies had a large, almost unhealthy degree of influence over the team.

I have something to tell you... #2017 pic.twitter.com/J6tdrMa1yi

— Sergio Pérez (@SChecoPerez) October 2, 2016

The team's official statement—entitled, "Sergio Perez confirms his plans to stay at Sahara Force India have been finalised," as opposed to, say, "Sahara Force India confirms Sergio Perez for 2017"—featured only quotes from the driver, with no comments from Mallya or deputy team boss Bob Fernley.

Now that his future has been settled, Perez is finally free to focus on the things that really matter.

To continue his development as a driver. To lead Force India to a highest-ever result of fourth in the constructors' championship, surpassing their previous best result of fifth in 2015.

And, perhaps most crucially, to prove he is capable of adapting to vastly different cars—and a new style of racing—when the major regulation changes are implemented in 2017, when his delicate, Button-like throttle application may not be enough to deliver the kind of results he is currently achieving.

With Telcel and Claro branding already prominent on the scarlet-red cars—and with Perez, for all the progress he has made since 2014, still viewed as one of the least dangerous threats to Sebastian Vettel and therefore an ideal No. 2 to the four-time world champion—a future Ferrari seat is surely his to lose.

But during this unusual, messy and at times distasteful episode, the balance between Perez's talent and money was a little too close for comfort.

              

Follow @OllieHarden

Force India met or exceeded most of their expectations in the 2015 Formula One season. After a slow start, the team made huge strides throughout the middle part of the year and ended the season with a car capable of challenging Red Bull and Williams.

Though their total points haul of 136 was fewer than they had scored in 2014, Force India finished fifth in the constructors' championship—their best-ever final position.

This gave the team their largest-ever share of the sport's commercial revenues and ensured they would remain a part of the influential Strategy Group for at least one more year.

The Force India of 2016 will retain the main ingredients of their success in 2015. They'll still have the class-leading Mercedes power unit, drivers Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg are staying put, and Andrew Green will remain at the head of their technical department.

Can they repeat, or even better, their 2015 performance?

Force India made a difficult start to the 2015 season after a string of issues over the winter. Chief among these was a problem with cash flow, revealed by deputy team principal Bob Fernley before the start of the year.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1, he admitted:

We have had cashflow issues, there is no question about that, our suppliers were very badly hit by the demise of Caterham and Manor—and are still suffering. We have a very high expenditure at a time of low incomes.

It’s very tough. Yes, we will survive but want to survive competitively. It’s tough for all the independent teams—ourselves, Sauber and even Williams.

Their preparations for the new season were also adversely affected by a decision to switch from using their own wind tunnel to using Toyota's. The time it took Force India to transfer their programme over meant they were behind the curve when the season began. They missed the first pre-season test and took their old car to the second.

However, the Japanese manufacturer's facilities, in Cologne, Germany, are considered among the finest in Europe, per Autosport. The team would undoubtedly benefit from the move eventually.

When they arrived for the third test, the VJM08 that eventually made its way out onto the track was nowhere near the finished product. But there was a lot of development backed up in the pipeline, and after the first race Fernley told F1i the team hoped to have a "B-spec" version of the car ready for the start of the European season.

3	Williams	106
4	Red Bull	98
5	Force India	97
6	Lotus	43

But the wait took a little longer than expected, with the B-spec proper making its debut at the British Grand Prix Silverstone in July. But even this wasn't the end of the development road, and further updates were added over the remainder of the summer.

The upturn in the team's fortunes was marked. Having scored just 39 points in the opening 10 races, Force India grabbed 97 in the final nine rounds—just one fewer than Red Bull managed in the same period.

A constructors' championship table based on the second half of the season shows Williams were also in the Indian team's sights.

But can they realistically hope to be as close to, or ahead of, those big names in 2016?

The mediocre performances of the Toyota and Honda teams throughout the 2000s proves that money does not guarantee success in F1. Per figures published by Formula Money (h/t F1 Fanatic), those teams had budgets similar to those of Ferrari and McLaren toward the end of the decade but failed to get anywhere near the front.

However, while resources do not necessarily equal success, a lack of resources almost always guarantees failure—or, to put it more kindly, a spot in the midfield.

Without the opportunity to find and exploit a loophole no one else noticed, a smaller, poorer team will never truly be able to compete with the big, rich ones. The larger outfits can throw far more personnel and resources at finding improvements in every area of their car; and even if one of the big boys gets it wrong, the others will get it right.

The only team in recent memory to win the constructors' championship on a substantially lower budget than the competition was Brawn in 2009—and that victory was only made possible by massive rule changes that gave them the opportunity to sniff out and perfect the double-diffuser design.

As the season wore on, Brawn's lack of resources told as other teams caught and passed them—but the points secured early in the year were enough to give them the title.

With the regulations remaining stable between 2015 and 2016, the likelihood of a small team—or any team—finding something similar, with significant performance benefits, is almost nil.

Budget will once again be the primary factor in chassis performance.

Force India's 2015 budget was £110 million, per figures published by Autosport's Dieter Rencken. This placed them in a grouping of teams with very similar budgets—alongside Williams (£110 million), Lotus (£100 million), Toro Rosso (£90 million) and Sauber (£90 million).

Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren were much higher; Manor were significantly lower.

One team's budget will change for 2016—the new Renault works team will surely spend more than Lotus did. However, the rest should remain broadly the same, so we can't expect Force India to make any significant strides relative to the big guns.

Ferrari and Mercedes will remain out of reach, and it's likely Red Bull will have enough in their pocket on the chassis side to make up for the engine-power deficit they will surely once again have.

But beyond that, Force India could well be among the leading contenders.

Force India and Williams, with similar budgets, should theoretically be quite evenly matched in terms of chassis quality—and there's little to choose between their driver lineups. Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa are a formidable pairing, but in Perez and Hulkenberg, Force India also have a very capable duo.

Benefiting from the Mercedes power unit, the two teams should, as they were in 2015, once again be battling it out in a group behind the front-runners.

The Renault team—formerly Lotus—will be out of the reckoning. The England-based team face a transitional year as they build the Enstone base up to a level befitting a full works outfit. With a weak driver lineup, a power unit that requires a lot of work and changes ahead on the personnel front, it's very hard to see them bothering the front of the midfield.

Likewise, that will be the case for Sauber and Manor. Though they'll have good engines, neither will have a world-beating driver lineup and both have even tighter finances than Force India do.

Red Bull's sister team, Toro Rosso, built an excellent chassis on a small budget in 2015, and in 2016, they will have a year-old Ferrari engine. As bad as that sounds, it'll almost certainly start the season with more power and reliability than the 2016-spec Renault power unit—so the Italian team could find themselves closer to the front than ever before.

But as the season goes on, others will be able to improve their engines while Toro Rosso will be stuck with the same specification all the way to Abu Dhabi in the last grand prix in November. It's almost inevitable that they will fall down the order as the year progresses.

Haas will have a current-year Ferrari engine, which shouldn't be too far behind the Mercedes. However, they are an entirely new team with no experience of building or carrying out in-season development of an F1 car.

Furthermore, much of the work on their chassis is being outsourced, and they will have a significantly lower budget than a typical midfielder—around £70 million, per F1i's Julien Billiotte. As interesting as it would be to see Haas succeed, it's difficult to imagine this arrangement will be better than the traditional in-house development structure.

Based on their budget and experience, Force India should be beating Haas, as well as Toro Rosso, Renault, Sauber and Manor. Anything less would be a failure.

And that brings us round to McLaren.

The fallen giants had a terrible 2015 as the English outfit struggled with the woefully uncompetitive and unreliable Honda power unit. The MP4-30 chassis itself wasn't bad—BBC Sport's Andrew Benson reports it was considered by engineers to be better than the Williams or Force India—but the engine was so poor the team could only manage ninth in the standings.

Another quality chassis is likely to roll out of Woking in 2016, so whether or not Force India can beat McLaren again rests almost entirely on Honda's shoulders. McLaren have a substantially larger budget, and the MP4-31 will be driven by Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button—arguably the best pairing on the grid.

If the 2016-spec Honda engine is even in the ballpark of the Mercedes, McLaren will return to the top four.

But if it isn't, they might find themselves in any of a number of battles and could end the season anywhere from fourth in the standings all the way down to last in 11th.

Expectationwise, that leaves Force India looking at finishing somewhere between fourth and sixth in the championship. They have to be aiming to fight Williams, and it's entirely realistic to believe they're capable of doing so.

Though Williams have been the better team since the start of 2014, the two Mercedes customers have similar budgets, their driver lineups are of similar quality, and both have plenty of experienced, battle-hardened personnel capable of pushing them forward.

And with the teams being allowed a little more freedom when it comes to which tyre compounds they have to use for each event, the tyre-management skills of Perez may give Force India a valuable added edge.

If Honda make big progress over the winter, McLaren will be too strong and fourth will be out of reach.

But if they don't, Force India have every opportunity to take another best-ever championship position.

With Nico Hulkenberg's sixth-place finish, Force India secured fifth spot, their best-ever result in the Formula One constructors' standings, at November's Brazilian Grand Prix.

But any celebrations, at least those of the public variety, were kept to a minimum at Interlagos.

Rather than gathering the entire team, from the drivers to the cleaners, at the front of the garage for one of those victory photocalls complete with a "P5" pit board and countless bottles of champagne—as a lesser team may have done—Force India seemed to be content with backslaps and 140-character Twitter tributes.

The result means we're certain of FIFTH place in the championship, our best result ever! HISTORY: MADE! #BrazilGP #FeelTheForce

— Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team (@AstonMartinF1) November 15, 2015

My utmost satisfaction is we have improved performance steadily every year over the past 8 years. I have a great team to whom I owe this.

— Vijay Mallya (@TheVijayMallya) November 15, 2015

For them, this was not the culmination of seven years of blood, sweat and tears, but the first step toward bigger and better things. 

And while Bob Fernley was, of course, overjoyed with his side's achievement, it didn't take long for the deputy team principal—like all great leaders in sport—to absorb that success and turn his attention toward the near future, the latest challenge, the next step.

In true industrial, Force India-esque fashion, Fernley explained that after breaking into the top five, his team must target the Big Four in 2016, telling Motorsport.com's Adam Cooper:

It does show that there has been a genuine step-up. Our powertrain is probably the best in the business, so I don't think there are any issues there.

And I think chassis-wise we are a genuinely top four or five car. To take the next move into the top four requires another step, but we've got the assets to do it today.

What we have to look at is setting our sights on competing with Williams, because they are a similarly-funded team with similar assets, albeit a bit more in-depth because of the amount of investment they've put in over the years.

Clearly we want to close down on them. I think we've been chipping away at them over the second half of the season.

Just 12 months ago, as they were put in their place by McLaren, who stole fifth place in the closing weeks of the season, the chances of Force India emerging as one of the leading teams on the grid appeared to be non-existent.

Yet now, due to one of the "assets" Fernley discussed with such enthusiasm at Interlagos, the midfield team with an apparent inferiority complex are ready to be taken much more seriously.

As reported by Autosport's Dieter Rencken and Lawrence Barretto, Force India are set to undergo a change of identity over the winter, which will see the team become Aston Martin Racing, and that orange, green, black and silver colour scheme will be replaced by blue and gold as a result of a sponsorship deal with Johnnie Walker.

Aston Martin's "small" budget, per F1 journalist Joe Saward, means the impending agreement with the British sportscar manufacturer—which is part-owned by Mercedes, Force India's engine supplier since 2009—is likely to be nothing more than a "relatively small technical partnership."

But even so, a little cosmetic surgery could have a transformational effect on Force India.

Rather than reaching out specifically to a single (if highly populated) pocket of the globe with a regional-based title, an F1 team with as fashionable and iconic a name as Aston Martin would carry a worldwide appeal, attracting interest from a range of markets.

The reported deal with Johnnie Walker, which per the Telegraph's Daniel Johnson provided £15 million per season over its decade as a McLaren sponsor and offered as much as £43 million a year to replace Vodafone as title sponsor at the end of 2013, is a template for the profile of partner Force India should soon be able to entice.

Should the team attract a host of new sponsors and retain the Telmex backing provided by the increasingly impressive Sergio Perez—who, according to James Allen on F1's Alex Kalinauckas brings "approximately €10-12 million"—Force India's budget could grow larger than ever before.

And that would consign those eerie pre-season horror stories relating to the team's future—in January, chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer, per Motorsport.com, was forced to deny Force India were "on the verge of insolvency"—to history.

That, in turn, would offer new possibilities to a team whose on-track performances have too often been dictated by their financial constraints.

In recent years, Force India have made a habit of starting a given season with a strong all-round car, scoring consistent points in the early races before falling behind in the development race, losing momentum and finishing in their rightful place in the pecking and championship order.

While that trend reversed in 2015, as the Silverstone-based outfit began the year with an "interim" car before introducing a B-specification chassis at the midseason stage, which proved to be instrumental to their lofty championship finish, there is a lingering sense that Force India only turn up for half a season.

But with extra funds, and the continued use of Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany, the team could start a season with the "top four or five car" Fernley craves—featuring innovations akin to the VJM08's nostril nose—and evolve it as the year progresses, maintaining a stable level of performance.

As Force India continued to knock on the door of the top five during this decade, finishing sixth in 2011, 2012 and 2014, it was worth wondering just what this team—arguably the best pound-for-pound outfit in the business—could achieve with a little financial boost and more resources.

Although it may take time for the relationship with Aston Martin to blossom, it seems this punchy little team—having smashed the glass ceiling to a thousand pieces in 2015—will finally have the platform to realise their potential and show what they're really capable of.

And, perhaps, to prove what's in a name.

Follow @OllieHarden

Force India aren't supposed to do things this way.

The plucky little team, with their plucky little car, are meant to get their points on the board at an early stage, taking advantage of any unpredictability at the start of a season to make a head-start before dedicating the second half of a campaign to defending their position.

It is a philosophy they have perfected in recent times, equaling their best-ever finish in the constructors' standings in the last two years.

After eight races of 2013, Force India were fifth in the championship with 59 points and a best finish of fourth, while at the same stage in 2014, they were as high as fourth having registered 87 points and their first podium finish in almost five years.

The problem with such an approach, however, is that when the time comes for the team to defend, they are often found defenceless. 

Their lack of resources and financial muscle in comparison to the teams they race alongside across the first half of the season means they lose out in the development race to those who can buy their way out of trouble.

The top-five finishes of spring and early summer become fights for seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th by autumn, and a season that once promised so much—and should still be celebrated—is tinged with disappointment and ultimately defined by missed opportunities as Force India are once again put in their place.

Sixth place.

This year, though, the team have reversed the trend and sacrificed short-term pain for long-term gain, an enforced change but one that could, after years spent knocking on the door, see Force India finally break into the elite.

#F1 Find new tech pics of the Force India B-spec & some interesting infos in our AMuS story: http://t.co/3a1PuCAOUf pic.twitter.com/X27zfYtK03

— Tobi Grüner 🏁 (@tgruener) July 3, 2015

In pre-season, Bob Fernley, the deputy team boss, told Sky Sports' Pete Gill that "cash-flow issues" had impacted the development of Force India's 2015 car, forcing Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez to take to the track in an interim machine.

As Hulkenberg told Auto Motor und Sport (h/t Planet F1), this meant the team were very much in damage-limitation mode in the first phase of the campaign, but their wariness was misguided.

Despite scoring just 31 points in the opening eight races of 2015, Force India are currently in the position you have come to expect from them at the halfway stage: fifth, very much in the midst of the midfield battle yet close enough to those ahead to frighten the weakest of the established front-runners.

Their ability to scoop a respectable amount of points even at their weakest makes you wonder just what they can achieve with a heavily revised version of the VJM08, which after being delayed several times made its first appearance at the post-Austrian Grand Prix test and will make its race debut in this weekend's British GP.

The B-spec car, developed at the Toyota wind tunnel previously used by Ferrari, includes upgrades to "the floor, adaptations to the chassis, some parts of the rear of the floor and the diffuser," as Perez told Sky Sports' James Galloway.

Defined by a unique nose design, which features two nostril-like air inlets, the car—much like the twin-tusked Lotus of 2014—is a reminder of the technical excellence existing along the pit lane and should give the team a strong chance of overhauling Red Bull Racing, who currently hold a 24-point lead over Force India, to claim fourth in the championship.

Pretty much a new car for Force India this w/e. Loving the nostrils. Drivers say "better aero stability" #bbcf1 pic.twitter.com/EoaPXC5TR6

— Tom Clarkson (@TomClarksonF1) July 3, 2015

Force India's midseason slump has usually taken over in Belgium and Italy—the team have failed to finish higher than seventh at either event in the last two seasons—but this time they should be at their peak at Spa-Francorchamps and Monza, where their aerodynamic upgrades will enhance the effect of their Mercedes power unit.

The effect of having a relatively strong car at most of the remaining 11 races, especially the power-dependent circuits, should also be visible among team members, who having been accustomed to looking over their shoulders toward the end of a season for so long will now have a fixed target, a chance to operate adventurously and aggressively.

Hulkenberg and Perez, more than anyone, will benefit from that and revel in the opportunity to produce eye-catching drives at a time of year F1's "silly season" comes to a close.

Their promising starts to 2014—the German's 10-race point-scoring streak, the Mexican's third-place finish in Bahrain—almost counted for nothing when they became victims of the team's loss of form in the second half of the season. 

Without the machinery at their disposal to maintain their performance levels, both men were forgotten when the driver market exploded last October and were overlooked by the likes of McLaren and Ferrari.

If Perez and Hulkenberg can string together an impressive sequence of results in the coming months, however, they could put themselves in serious contention for seats at Ferrari—both men are dark horses to replace Kimi Raikkonen—and Williams, who may be forced to find an alternative to Valtteri Bottas.

Force India's B-spec car has made an immediate step forward, says Nico Hulkenberg http://t.co/ol3YLU2e17 #f1 pic.twitter.com/az97pi8MYO

— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) July 3, 2015

With Red Bull and McLaren—two of the teams to have kept Force India out of the top five in recent seasons—both weakened by fundamental engine-related issues with Renault and Honda respectively, there is seemingly nothing they can do to stop Force India slotting behind Mercedes, Ferrari and Williams.

It is ironic the financial shortcomings that prevented the team from making a sustained bid to finish fifth (or above) in years gone by could, due to this long overdue but major midseason upgrade, be exactly what allows Force India to join the elite in 2015.

The economic rewards for such an achievement could mean Force India will no longer have to split their seasons in two and allow them to be competitive from start to finish.

The glass ceiling is waiting to be shattered.

Follow @OllieHarden

Having spent so much of his career in the shadows, Nico Hulkenberg finally had a day in the sun last weekend.

Less than seven days after finishing eighth for Force India in the Canadian Grand Prix, the German started the Le Mans 24 Hours in the second of a two-race deal with Porsche, the most successful manufacturer in the event's history.

She's ready! @PorscheRaces #porsche919hybrid #LeMans24h #excited @earlbamber @NickTandyR pic.twitter.com/k6jEuAVBbJ

— Nico Hülkenberg (@HulkHulkenberg) June 9, 2015

Despite starting the race with the fastest car at his disposal—Porsche had secured a one-two-three result in qualifying—expectations, given Hulkenberg's lack of experience in sportscar racing, were muted.

Indeed, it was telling that the Audi cars swarmed Hulkenberg's 919 Hybrid so soon after the start, penetrating Porsche's early stranglehold by relegating the new boy to fifth as though they had identified him as the weak link.

Yet as the race wore on, and those around hit trouble, Hulkenberg and his co-drivers, fellow rookie Earl Bamber and Nick Tandy, found themselves in control in the cover of darkness. It was where they remained when the sun poked its head through the trees on Sunday morning.

And just a week after finishing a lap behind the race winner, Hulkenberg, who was handed the honour of caressing the car to the chequered flag, was the race winner, a lap, a lifetime ahead of the rest of the field.

#Winner @NicoHulkenberg pic.twitter.com/M0qIoARD46

— Matthew Somerfield 🅢🅞🅜🅔🅡🅢Ⓕ① (@SomersF1) June 14, 2015

Hulkenberg's triumph, the first by an active F1 driver at Le Mans since Johnny Herbert in 1991, was a hugely significant moment in modern-day motor racing and one that could potentially alter the trajectory of his career.

After all, all Hulkenberg has ever craved, all he has ever needed, is the chance to make headlines, to put himself on a pedestal, to put his name in lights as bright as the stars that hung over the Circuit de la Sarthe on Saturday night.

September 19 2009 was the last time Nico Hulkenberg stood on a podium in GP2 finale at Algarve. #LM24 #F1

— Oliver Harden (@OllieHarden) June 14, 2015

Unable to do that on a regular basis in F1, where he has spent his career in average-to-mediocre machinery, he put himself in a position to do so at Le Mans, where the ramifications of victory—his first podium finish of any kind in six years—could mean more than the prestige of victory itself.

As much as his agreement with Porsche, announced at the end of last year, was a welcome throwback to a bygone era when drivers—before the days of multi-clause, constraining contracts—would compete in a range of categories, there was an inescapable feeling that Hulkenberg was putting plans in place for life after F1. 

Force India's financial problems—deputy team principal Bob Fernley told Sky Sports' Pete Gill how "cash-flow issues" were behind the delayed introduction of their 2015 car—coupled with Hulkenberg's inability to provide the team with notable sponsorship funds, meant the German's place at the team was in some degree of doubt at the start of this season.

Motorsport.com reported in pre-season how Force India parachuted Mercedes reserve driver Pascal Wehrlein into the car in testing in place of Hulkenberg to compensate for unpaid "engine bills," and there was a possibility this would soon become a full-time arrangement.

Yet the recognition that comes with winning Le Mans means Hulkenberg may now attract the interest of sponsors and partners who could not only help him consolidate his place at Force India, but finally present him with an opportunity to move toward the front of the grid.

Should Kimi Raikkonen continue to struggle to perform alongside Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari, it is plausible the Prancing Horse could discard the 2007 world champion at the end of the season, creating a stampede for one of the most hallowed seats in F1.

Although that particular race would almost certainly be won by Valtteri Bottas—according to Bild (h/t Motorsport.com), Ferrari team boss Maurizio Arrivabene failed to deny the Finn has a pre-contract agreement with the Italian outfit—a well-funded Hulkenberg would be in a strong position to replace him at Williams, with whom his own career began in 2010 and who, per BBC Sport, announced a loss of £42.5 million for 2014.

As well as aiding his personal prospects, Hulkenberg's success at Le Mans may act as a bridge between Formula One and the World Endurance Championship, two categories which, for all their similarities, are poles apart.

Since its inception in 2012, the WEC has emerged as a credible alternative to the self-appointed pinnacle of motorsport, with its modern outlook—see its dropping of grid girls for this season—and its relatively relaxed rules when it comes to car design, as well as its encouragement of hybrid technology, at odds with F1.

The WEC's boom at a time the F1 bubble is bursting—overly complex regulations, processional racing, struggling teams and, as reported by MailOnline's Nick Harris and Christian Sylt, falling television figures—has resulted in frequent comparisons between the series, with that tribalism particularly evident over the course of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Btw, idea that WEC is "better" than F1 is irrelevant - 24 hours is hardly a TV spectacle. Just a much jollier mood and open environment.

— Daniel Johnson (@danielt_johnson) June 14, 2015

And that's something you don't get in #F1: unless eyes deceive me, Audi team boss goes to Porsche pit to congratulate rivals on their win.

— Richard Williams (@rwilliams1947) June 14, 2015

I am a fan of F1. I am a fan of WEC. I am a fan of both. Why do some people feel the need to compare? They are different! Enjoy both!!!

— Jason Swales (@Jason_A_Swales) June 13, 2015

Yet as a driver who has now excelled in both categories at the same time, perhaps Hulkenberg can become a link between, and an ambassador for, the two championships, a permanent reminder that different disciplines of motorsport should be embraced and work together, not as rivals.

As he returns to the day job in this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring, cutting short his post-Le Mans celebrations, Hulkenberg will be aware that the next few months will be potentially career-defining. 

Yesssss.... It was not a dream😎😄👌🏼👊🏼! We did it! @NickTandyR @earlbamber @PorscheRaces pic.twitter.com/tPIu48zPT4

— Nico Hülkenberg (@HulkHulkenberg) June 15, 2015

His previous headline-making exploits at the 2010 Brazilian GP, where he set a surprise pole position in wet conditions, and his challenge for the win at the same race in 2012 were not fully capitalised upon, with the German losing his Williams seat for 2011 and moving from Force India to the uncompetitive Sauber team for 2013.

They were missed (and wasted) opportunities as Hulkenberg temporarily faded from the paddock's consciousness—the German recently told us the switch to Sauber was the biggest regret of his F1 career—yet there is reason to believe this time will be different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2lfHXdDpSk

With Fernley telling Sky Sports' Pete Gill that Force India's B-spec car, developed at Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany, will make its long-awaited debut in July's British Grand Prix, Hulkenberg should have the opportunity to follow up his Le Mans win with a number of solid, point-scoring F1 drives.

Still blown away...last few days been amazing! Overwhelmed by all the compliments & reactions! Thank you so much! #happy #proud #blessed

— Nico Hülkenberg (@HulkHulkenberg) June 16, 2015

If he can maintain his Le Mans momentum and recreate his form of early 2014, when he scored points—including four top-five finishes—in the first 10 races, the 27-year-old could yet become a key figure in the driver market.

But for now, the question is not what F1 and Le Mans can do for Hulkenberg, but what Hulkenberg can do for F1 and Le Mans.

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MONTREAL — It is one of the great mysteries of the modern world, like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster: Why has the extremely talented Nico Hulkenberg spent his entire Formula One career languishing with midfield teams while other drivers have progressed up the grid?

For some insight, we turned to the man himself who, in addition to his F1 duties with Force India, is channelling his inner Graham Hill or Jacky Ickx and racing in this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans for Porsche.

As Hulkenberg sits in Force India's hospitality area in the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve's paddock, ready to begin the interview, he playfully, repeatedly thwarts a photographer's attempt to snap a photo of him.

After some chatter about flights and jet lag, with the 27-year-old German stretching and yawning, he drops his hat on the table—flat-brimmed, like Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and the other cool kids are wearing—and shifts into interview mode: sitting upright, speaking with a loud, clear voice. His sunglasses, Ray-Bans, stay on.

"It's about timing," he says pragmatically when asked the reasons for his career's slow progression. "Obviously it's a time where we have a lot of good drivers on the market and the market is very competitive and there's only a limited amount of seats in the top teams.

"Look at the three big teams—they don't have bad drivers in there, so it's not easy for them to change it and say, 'Put Hulkenberg in there,' because they're doing a good job, too, and it's just how things fall.

"But I am a fighter and I will keep fighting and I think eventually I will get my opportunity."

He does not seem bitter, or even disappointed, despite his near misses. From 2010 to 2014, he moved from Williams to Force India to Sauber and then back to Force India but somehow seemed to miss those teams' best years along the way—Sauber in 2012, for example, or Williams' recent rise back up the grid.

In 2013, in the midst of an impressive finish to the season in a disappointing Sauber car, according to the German magazine Auto Motor und Sport (h/t NBC Sports), Hulkenberg was ready to sign a Ferrari contract, only to have the team pull it and sign Kimi Raikkonen at the last minute.

"You never really know how close you are," Hulkenberg says. "You only have the deal when it's signed and it wasn't signed."

That same year, it seemed then-Lotus team principal Eric Boullier wanted to sign the German, per his comments to Autosport's Jonathan Noble (this was back when Lotus had a race-winning car). Instead, the team brought in Pastor Maldonado and his Venezuelan millions.

"Maybe a bit unlucky or unfortunate timing," Hulkenberg offers. "Maybe in hindsight the move to Sauber—not to disregard that year—but maybe if I'd stayed at Force India, that could have been a change to my career. The 2013 Force India at the beginning of the year was a very good car, and at Sauber, we were struggling initially but then getting better in the second half.

"Every career is different and decisions were made for good reasons at the various times. You never have guarantees and obviously it hasn't played out perfectly, but on the other side, I think I'm still a lucky guy—I'm still in F1, doing what I love."

And despite his cameo in the World Endurance Championship at Le Mans (he also raced at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in May), Hulkenberg makes it very clear where his focus lies when asked whether he would consider a move to another series.

"You never know what happens a few years down the line. For sure it's attractive racing and WEC has developed into a really good racing format, but my head is still thinking around Formula One."

And he adds: "I'm not thinking outside of F1 at the moment."

The 2015 season has been a struggle so far for Hulkenberg and his team-mate Sergio Perez. Force India is short on cash, and following delays that limited their pre-season testing, the car's first major update was pushed back until after the Austrian Grand Prix on June 21.

Despite just one points-scoring finish in the season's first six races (Perez had three and Hulkenberg would score again in Canada), Hulkenberg is bullish about the team's chances for the rest of the year.

"It is realistic for us to chase that fifth place [in the constructors' championship]. The season is still relatively young, we still have many, many races to go and we're not far away from our main competition now," he says.

"After [Austria] we get the upgrade and that's hopefully when our season really kick-starts and we turn things around, so if all goes to plan after that, we can really challenge for fifth place and push in the second half of the season."

After the Canadian Grand Prix, Force India is tied with Sauber for sixth, two points behind Lotus. Fifth in the constructors' standings would be the team's best-ever finish (they were sixth in three of the last four years).

Of Perez, who has had an up-and-down career of his own, Hulkenberg says: "We are both very ambitious and competitive drivers, both at a similar stage in our careers. We're pushing each other really hard, which is good for ourselves, good for the team, and we're really getting the best out of ourselves. We have a healthy relationship—we are competitive, but we get along personally, as well."

In 2014, Hulkenberg outscored Perez 96 to 59, although the Mexican grabbed Force India's best result: third in Bahrain. This year, Perez has a slight 11 to 10 edge so far—neither driver has finished higher than seventh in a race.

Asked what he would improve about himself behind the wheel if he could change just one thing, Hulkenberg pauses for several seconds. "That is a naughty question," he laughs. "Sometimes I think I'm a bit impatient, and a bit more patience would help me in some cases."

Although really, who needs patience when you have the skill to pull off one of the overtaking moves of the season, like the pass Hulkenberg made on McLaren's Kevin Magnussen at Portier during last year's Monaco Grand Prix?

Beyond improving himself, though, what would Hulkenberg do if he could change just one thing in F1?

"Obviously at the moment there's a lot of talk from many people about what should be changed, what can be changed, but I think the F1 product itself is not a poor product," he says.

"There's always room for improvements and things you can do better, but for me, the most important thing to improve right now is the sound. The cars need to be louder so it goes through your skin and your stomach, like it used to be—and we need a bit more speed."

Spoken like a true racer!

Hopefully, one day, this racer will have a car that can really showcase all of his talent. Asked whether he sees that day coming, when there will be a chance for him to move up the F1 grid, Hulkenberg's answer is just three words.

"I think so."

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Twelve months ago, Sergio Perez crashed out of Formula One's Canadian Grand Prix on the final lap. His clumsy move to defend fourth place from Felipe Massa's attack sent both men into the wall and out of the race.

The stewards investigated, placed the blame for the collision firmly at Perez's door and gave him a five-place grid penalty for the next race.

Amid the very public war of words that followed—in which both drivers and teams had their say—it was easy to forget that until that single incident on the very last lap, Perez had driven one of his best races of the season.

One-stopping as those around him went for two, Perez had forced his way from 13th on the grid into podium contention. Had his Force India possessed just a 10th or two more pace through the middle sector—and had it not developed braking and electrical problems, later reported by Autosport—he could even have won his first grand prix.

And as we return to Quebec for this year's Canadian Grand Prix, there's every reason to suspect we're in for another top-drawer display from the Mexican in Montreal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1ap51Gu390

Perez heads into the race on a high after producing his best performance of the season in Monaco. He qualified a brilliant seventh in a car that had little business being anywhere in the top 10, then followed it up with a calm and mature race drive to finish where he started.

That he scored six points in a relatively underdeveloped Force India is alone worthy of praise, but when the safety car came out on Lap 64, Perez was just 17 seconds down on the leading Red Bull.

Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari was little more than 15 seconds up the road from the Mexican. Perhaps different drivers were managing their tyres and pace at varying levels, but to be that close to such quick cars is still a real achievement.

Even Mercedes felt compelled to give him a mention:

Great to see three of four #MBFamily teams in top 10 including a stellar drive from Perez for @ForceIndiaF1

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) May 24, 2015

The Monaco result was unexpected because it's a circuit that lessens the impact of the engine and exposes the flaws in a chassis. Force India's Mercedes engine is one of their most powerful weapons, but the VJM08 is nowhere near the finished product.

As revealed by team principal Vijay Mallya in May when speaking to the official F1 website, the team's "real" 2015 car isn't due to hit the track until the British Grand Prix. The car currently being run is a semi-developed "A-spec" machine—undoubtedly slower and with less downforce and finesse than the new car will have.

At least, that's the theory, and Force India's lack of competitiveness at the Circuit de Catalunya—considered the ultimate all-round test of a car's aerodynamic ability—lends weight to this.

But the car seemed at home around the low-speed corners of the slippery Monaco track. It can attack kerbs, has good traction and enjoys the soft and super-soft compounds.

This suggests Force India will also be comfortable in the slow turns of low-grip Montreal—and with a Mercedes power unit hurling the cars along the long straights, they should again be in points contention.

Team principal Mallya certainly feels this way, saying on the team's website:

The team is in a good place as we head to Canada. We’ve often gone well in Montreal and it’s one of those races where anything can happen—as we saw last year with Sergio challenging for the victory. The track layout means it should be one of our better circuits so it’s another opportunity to continue our fight for fifth place in the championship.

Perez, basking in the confident glow of his Monaco result, added:

I’m very positive at the moment. I feel I’m driving at my best and getting the most from every race. Monaco was pretty much a perfect weekend in terms of maximising our potential. I don’t think I could have come away with more from that race. So it was a very satisfying result for the whole team.

Montreal is one of my favourite tracks. I still remember my podium there in 2012—that was such a special result. Last year’s race was also one of my best, until the final lap! It was a race we had a real chance to win, but things just didn’t go our way in the end.

But even if Force India perform as well as they expect, they'll still be in the midfield, and the scrap between the fifth- and ninth-quickest cars will still be very tight.

Toro Rosso may struggle with their Renault power unit, and McLaren are likely to suffer from their Honda's lack of horsepower, but Sauber and Lotus should be competitive.

In this very close battle—which may also include Red Bull, if they have a bad weekend—it will fall to the drivers to make a difference.

The likes of Nico Hulkenberg, Romain Grosjean and Felipe Nasr are fine drivers who can be worth a place or three at the end of a race. But since the middle of 2014, Perez has been busy proving himself a very good driver too.

If anything he has outperformed highly rated team-mate Hulkenberg over the last year—and the Mexican has an additional, not-so-secret weapon up his sleeve that has served him well in the past.

Perez has a driving style that allows him to make his rear tyres last appreciably longer than his rivals. This ability often allows him to make fewer stops at certain circuits than others while remaining competitive.

His "tyre-whispering" skill was commented on during his very first F1 race. Following the 2011 Australian Grand Prix, in which Perez was the only driver to do a one-stop strategy (some did three), the Guardian quoted Pirelli boss Paul Hembery saying:

We were looking and we all thought, "He must come in. He's got to come in. What's he doing?" We thought the data men must be wrong and he must have had a stop and no one saw it. We checked. We asked, are you sure? And we were told, "Yes, he's done just one stop." It was quite a surprise and very exciting.

But it became most glaringly apparent during the 2012 season, in which Perez claimed three podium finishes—including a fine third place on his race debut (he missed the 2011 race) in Canada.

Having started 14th on the grid, Perez made up a few places at the start before settling in for a very long opening stint on the soft compound tyres. As the front-runners pitted to change from super-softs (and some from softs), Perez stayed out and rose to fifth.

He could have gone quicker, but Kimi Raikkonen in the Lotus was using the same strategy. F1 Fanatic's lap chart shows the Finn held Perez up for a little over 10 laps, but when both stopped, the then-Sauber man emerged ahead, 33 seconds off the lead.

Now on the more rapid super-soft tyres, Perez spent a few laps behind Nico Rosberg before getting by and starting to close on the cars ahead.

Amid a chaotic end to the race that saw a number of drivers discover they either needed to nurse their rubber or make an extra stop, Perez kept his tyres alive and came through to take third place, just five seconds down on the winner.

Had he not lost time behind Raikkonen and Rosberg, he could even have won.

Perez was able to do this because Montreal is a very rear-limited circuit—wear to the rear tyres determines how long each set will last and is therefore the primary factor in tyre strategy.

His driving style, aided by the tyre-kind Sauber, allowed him to keep his tyres in good condition despite his stints being longer. Per F1 Fanatic, his fastest lap came on the 67th tour. By then, his super-softs were 25 laps old.

Most of the other drivers had discarded theirs before they came close to reaching that age.

Later in the season, more excellent tyre management saw Perez come home in second at the Italian Grand Prix—another rear-limited circuit. The Sauber C31 being such a good car certainly helped, but Perez's own input was significant.

Since then, Perez has consistently performed at his best on rear-limited tracks with his fourth career podium, at the 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix, the highlight. The Canadian race of that year would have been another, but for that one silly mistake.

This weekend's race isn't expected to have the high temperatures of 2012, and the Force India isn't as competitive as the Sauber C31—Perez will not be fighting for the podium.

Providing no one crashes or breaks down, the top six will be the two Mercedes, two Ferraris and two Williams. They have the raw pace to start at the front and sufficient straight-line speed to scythe past any potentially troublesome one-stoppers.

But behind them there should be a lot of points up for grabs. Two stops should be the most common strategy, and it's hard to see the Renault-powered cars having enough grunt to overtake a slightly slower Force India.

A one-stopping racer, managing his tyres well and driving a car with a powerful engine, has the chance to grab seventh—or higher, should those in front hit trouble.

With a strong history at the circuit and a proven ability to make his tyres last, Perez, currently in the best form of his career, is well-placed to be that man.