Nico Hülkenberg and Rinus van Kalmthout driver duo next year in Indycar-series

Ed Carpenter has declared to Motorsport.com that Nico Hülkenberg will not be driving for his team next year. “To be honest, I did speak with Nico a couple of times, and I think he was intrigued by the prospect of coming to IndyCar, but I just don’t think the timing was right for him."

Read the interview with Ed Carpenter from Motorsport.com here: https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/news/carpenter-...





The Editorial staff of GPLatestNews has it on a good authority that Nico Hülkenberg and Rinus van Kalmthout will form a team next year in the IndyCar-series in the United States. The German Formula 1 driver and the Dutchman will form a driver pairing for IndyCar-team Ed Carpenter Racing. According to our sources, the news will be made official by Ed Carpenter Racing next week.



With the switch to IndyCar, Hülkenbergs career in Formula 1 will – for now – come to end. The German made his entry in Formula 1 at Williams, after which the German respectively joined the teams of Force India and Sauber, until he was eventually recruited by Renault. This season, the marriage between Hülkenberg and Renault was showing signs of falling apart. The love between the team and the German driver was confirmed to be over when the French team announced that Esteban Ocon will take over Hülkenberg’s seat next season. The transfer to the American IndyCar and Ed Carpenter Racing will undoubtedly mean a welcome change for the German from the world of Formula 1.

Rookie Rinus

At Ed Carpenter Racing, Hülkenberg will form a team with Rinus ‘Veekay’ van Kalmthout. The 19-year old Dutchman is known as a rising talent, and has been driving in the United States for several seasons. After the USF2000, a development class voor the IndyCar-series, van Kalmthout (VeeKay) impressed in the Indy Lights, a series comparable to the Formula 2-class in Europe. In this motorsport class, he finished as runner-up in the championship. He also claimed 6 victories. This was reason enough for Ed Carpenter Racing to invite Rinus for a testing day to drive in the ‘real’ IndyCar, where he impressed with a flawless drive and a time that was a fraction of a second slower than the fastest lap of the session.

About Ed Carpenter Racing

Ed Carpenter Racing has been active in IndyCar since 2012. Ed Carpenter, who drives for the team himself, founded the team. However, since it’s third season in the sport in 2014, the founder of the team has not driven a full season in IndyCar; last year he only appeared in five of the seventeen races of the series. For the last couple of years, the team has had moderate success. In the first season Ed Carpenter Racing appeared in IndyCar, it won a race at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. At this moment in time, the team has claimed five victories since it’s founding. However, the team has never managed to win the most prestigious race of the IndyCar-series, the Indy 500. Last year, the driver-line up of the team consisted of Spencer Pigot and Ed Jones, who appeared next to Ed Carpenter himself.

Last season, Ed Carpenter Racing did not achieve much success. The team did not win a single race, nor did it end up on the podium any time during the year. The best result of the season was a fifth place at the Iowa 300.

Line-up Switcharoo?

With Hülkenberg as the experienced driver and van Kalmthout (Veekay) as the talented rookie, the team hopes to achieve better results next season. Recently, some interesting rumors rose about which driver will start in which race for the team.

Earlier we shared the news that rumors have surfaced that van Kalmthout (VeeKay) will drive on the oval-circuits, while Hülkenberg will account for the rest of the races for the American team.

But new information came to us from other reliable sources. These sources tell us that Rinus Veekay will race the complete season, and Nico Hülkenberg will change seats with Ed Carpenter. Ed will race in the oval tracks, and Nico will race in the road courses.

When the editorial staff of GPLatestNews asked for a response from Ed Carpenter Racing, the American racing team did not confirm, but also did not deny what our sources have told us. The managers of the drivers concerned were not available for commentary.

Update on Friday 15-11-2019

Several days after the publishing of this article, Nico Hülkenberg, Rinus ‘Veekay’ van Kalmthout and Ed Carpenter Racing have officially responded to our story. At this point in time, all involved parties deny that any contract whatsoever has been signed for the 2020 season. However, the staff of GPLatestNews still has reason to believe that an announcement regarding these drivers racing for Ed Carpenter Racing in the 2020 season will be made public soon. During the Formula 1 race weekend in Brazil, Nico Hülkenberg has declared that he sees the Indycar-series as a possible future in his racing career. This is a contradiction to statements he made earlier, where he said he is not open to racing in the IndyCar-series. To add to that, Spencer Bigot, now former driver for Ed Carpenter Racing, has announced that he will no longer be a part of the Ed Carpenter Racing team in the coming season.

As for now, watch this space.