Nico Hulkenberg has dismissed a report linking him with a possible switch to Red Bull for 2020 a🧔s “fake news”, saying the story was “made up”.

Following a difficult stᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚart to the season for Pierre Gasly that has seen him struggle to match Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen for pace, a report emerged in Italy suggesting team advisor Helmut Marko had sounded outꦰ Renault’s Hulkenberg as a possible replacement.

Marko was quick to dismiss the rumour as “nonsense”, with Gasly saying in Montreal that he had no desire to 🌠waste time 🌳on a “bullshit” story that was “bad journalism”.

Hulkenberg was also quick to brush off the report whenꦫ asked about it on Thursday.

“🐬I think I heard it came🦂 from the Italian side,” Hulkenberg said.

“It was made up. It’s basically fake news.”

Asked by wuqian0821.com how it felt t🀅o be linked to a f🌟ront-running team, Hulkenberg joked that it “felt great for my ego”.

“Not really. It didn’t do anything to me. My confidence lev♛el is OK, even witho🐲ut it.”

Hul𓄧kenberg heads into this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix looking to end a five-race run without points, with his last run-out in Monaco being compromised by a clash with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and a mistimed Safety Car, leaving him 13th.

“I didn’t feel there was much I could do about it, just from the moment when Charles sliced my tyre opeꦫn, that was the race basically over for me,” Hulkenberg said.

“We pitted, the others gained a stop under the Safety Car. It just all went wrong basically in that moment, and there’s not muc𝓀h in my conౠtrol from there.

“We will bounce back. I’m 💞feeling fairly strong. The record🎉 here, I like this place and this track, and I feel our package is definitely competitive for fourth-best team.

“I think we know what to do ꧋this weekend with both cars.”

Additional reporting by Julianne Cerasoli.