SINGAPORE -- When Nico Hulkenberg awoke to a hazy Singapore on Thursday morning, he must have felt confident his Formula One career could realistically survive beyond 2019.
Renault's decision to partner Daniel Ricciardo with Esteban Ocon for 2020 had left the experienced German scrambling to find a place on the grid, but there were still options available. The most fancied was at Haas with the out-of-sorts Romain Grosjean viewed from the outside as a 50-50 shot at best to retain his seat alongside Kevin Magnussen.
But at 3:00pm, around the time the haze had subsided, everything changed.