When was Hulkenburg at his top

Since 2014 he hasn't lost any speed imo, but he's been particularly good the last few years

His only real chance left is red bull because Haas and AR are gonna take ferrari juniors, and AT are likely to either take albon back or take Tsunoda. And the only way he gets a chance at RB is if Albon gets demoted to AT, and even at that he's competing for it with Perez whos a more likely candidate. 

I think Hulkenberg is a massively underrated driver. Maybe not the level of an absolute top driver like Hamilton or Verstappen, but extremely capable. Up with Daniel Ricciardo and Bottas, both proven race winners. He won the Le Mans 24 Hour at the first attempt, while doing an f1 season. That's extremely impressive. He hasn't helped himself at times, I'm not criticising but he threw away a potential win in Brazil 2012 when he hit Hamilton, and in Germany last year he drove brilliantly to get to a podium position and dropped it 

Most people are aware of his skill, but the cards just arent in his favor right now. Him and perez deserve seats more than ocon, latifi, grosjean, gio, arguably kmag (but I do think he should have a seat), albon, gasly, dany, and probably even stroll, but sadly, getting an F1 seat isnt just about being fast, there's too many politics involved.