Guenther Steiner thinks Mercedes should now consider surprise ‘fantastic’ driver for 2025

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Guenther Steiner was watching on as a pundit for the first time at the Bahrain Grand Prix and when asked about the vacant Mercedes seat in 2025, couldn’t help but include former driver Nico Hulkenberg in the conversation.

The 36-year-old Haas driver was one of the stars of the show in qualifying on Friday but ruined his race before the end of the first lap.

After the race, Steiner was interviewed on Sky Sports F1 and asked one of the most burning questions in Formula 1 right now.

Steiner mentions Hulkenberg as an option for Mercedes

After reaching the final session of qualifying, Nico Hulkenberg got off to a sluggish start on the grid.

He did all he could to avoid Lance Stroll heading into the first hairpin but ended up spinning the Canadian around, sending him to the back of the grid.

While Stroll did very well to recover to the final points-paying position, Hulkenberg eventually ended up in 16^th place.

That will encourage him, especially as he finished ahead of both Alpines and saw teammate Kevin Magnussen finish the race in 12^th.

Off the back of the first race of the 2024 season, Steiner admitted that he would have Hulkenberg in the Mercedes conversation for 2025.

Toto Wolff has a big decision to make when it comes to choosing George Russell’s new teammate.

He’s also got plenty of time and the whole driver market likely hinges on the decision he’s going to make.

Mercedes seat set to dominate conversations

Damon Hill asked Steiner: ”Is someone higher up in a more competitive team going to give him [Nico Hulkenberg] a chance?”

The former Haas boss replied: “I think he deserves – deserves is a big word here in Formula 1, nobody deserves anything, you have to work for everything – but Nico as you said, I always Nico was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“It’s not negative, it’s just sometimes you make a choice and it doesn’t work out as you think it will work out.

“And I think what he did in qualifying was fantastic again, obviously the start [in the race] wasn’t as fantastic.

“I didn’t see him after the race, I saw him on TV interviewed, he wasn’t happy about that one, he was very down on himself.

“I think the two candidates if you take out everybody else [for Mercedes] are Carlos [Sainz] and Nico.

“It seems like I always pick the oldest guys around but his experience it counts you know.

“When you want to win a world championship, the guys who have done it long enough, because the experience is not for free, it takes a long time to get there and that’s what they’d bring to the team.”

Hulkenberg will be delighted that Steiner has mentioned him in conversation with Mercedes.

As he says, the German has never been given an opportunity to drive a top car in F1, seemingly choosing the wrong team time and again.

Mercedes would likely want a younger driver to replace Hamilton, or if they wanted to go with experience then Fernando Alonso may make the most sense.

But Hulkenberg can only put in the best performances possible and hope he catches the attention of some of Haas’s rivals with his contract set to expire at the end of the year.