Le Mans Winner Hulkenberg to Make Sports Car Return

2015 24 Hours of Le Mans winner and ex-Formula 1 driver Nico Hulkenberg will make his sports car racing return in the ADAC GT Masters round at the Nürburgring next month.

Hulkenberg, who has 177 Grand Prix starts to his name, will contest the second round of the GT Masters season on August 15-16 driving a Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo run by the mcchip-dkr team.

The 32-year-old is to share the wheel of the Lamborghini with team managing director Danny Kubasik, who will be competing under the pseudonym ‘Dieter Schmidtmann’.

Hulkenberg last raced in sports cars in 2015, when he won Le Mans overall in a Porsche 919 Hybrid shared with current IMSA drivers Earl Bamber and Nick Tandy.

Like that appearance Hulkenberg also expects his upcoming GT3 debut, which will consist of two 60-minute sprint races, to be a cameo.

“The ADAC GT Masters is an exciting series with cool cars, and after a break of almost eight months, I’m really keen to get behind the wheel again and feel the adrenalin flow,” he said.

“With the 2020 Formula 1 season at last having got underway, my fingers are twitching.

“To all rumor merchants out there, I’d like to make it quite clear that this guest start is to be interpreted as no more than a minor venture into GT sport.

“I’m really looking forward to the challenge, but I also know that we’ll have to stretch ourselves quite a bit to be competitive.”

Hulkenberg recently tested the Lamborghini GT3 at the Nürburgring to prepare for his first sports car race in half a decade. 

The German racer was replaced by Esteban Ocon in Renault’s Formula 1 lineup for the 2020 season, following eight consecutive years in the world championship. 

He was the most recent active Grand Prix driver to win Le Mans until recent Renault signing Fernando Alonso triumphed with Toyota Gazoo Racing in 2018.