The F1 champion made dubious sports history, and his career almost ended – then he became the best show driver in the world

Brazilian F1 race in 2012. With Nico Hülkenberg runs on the Interlagos classic track. Two years earlier, he has achieved his first F1 pole position in rainy conditions at the same place.

Now, to everyone’s surprise, the Force India driver leads the race. The track is bathed in water again.

A career-changing first podium finish or even a time of victory may be just around the corner. The kind of memory that we will come back to one day in the world championship mood.

Suddenly everything changes.

The 25-year-old German spins and loses his top spot For Lewis Hamilton.

Hülkenberg, exuding the enthusiasm of youth, tries to clear the situation by overtaking, but hits champion driver Hamilton. The race for both is ruined. The giant surprise is replaced by a drive-through penalty and fifth place.

That fatal lye has followed Hülkenberg’s career to this day.

11 years later in Brazil, he is a champion driver who has made 200 F1 starts, and instead of the world championship, he holds an ungrateful title. He is the driver who has run the most races without a single podium finish.

Hülkenberg’s F1 career seemed to be over already in 2019. However, the most likable driver in the F1 pits got one more chance to pursue his missing dream.

To be the new Schumacher

At the beginning of the 2010s, Germany experienced the golden age of formulas. Michael Schumacher had driven himself into the hearts of the Germans with his seven championships.

Sebastian Vettel’s and Nico Rosberg’s the next generation he starred in had already had time to show their skills. In addition, Nico Hülkenberg, who won the GP2 series championship in 2009, was expected to be the country’s next star driver after Vettel.

The backgrounds were okay, because Schumacher, who worked as a manager, also seemed to be there Willie Weber. There was success in small formulas and a Williams test driver spot.

The pole position in the rookie season with Williams, who was in the middle of the series at the time, gave a sign that this is the future F1 world champion.

– After Michael Schumacher, he was once called the successor to German motor racing. However, he never became that, Urheilu’s expert Jukka Mildh remembers.

Certainty, not pomp

After a rookie season that brought a pole position, Hülkenberg was left without a competitive skier’s place. The beginning of his F1 career was marked by the fact that he was there for one season and here for another.

In 2012 with Force India, his best achievement was fourth place for Lotus in the Belgian race Kimi Räikkönen after. The highlight of the following season for Sauber was the third place in the qualifying sessions at Monza in the wake of the sovereign Red Bulls.

After that, after a year’s wandering, he ended up back at Force India, where he formed a stable and reliable driver pair by Sergio Perez with. In the first season together, he was actually clearly better in points than Perez, who later entered the Red Bull championship team and became a multiple race winner.

However, Perez was able to be the one of his team mates who could shine when given the opportunity. Three years together brought Perez four podium places, while Hülkenberg had a total of zero.

For example, in the 2014 Bahrain GP, ​​Hülkenberg did not finish third Felipe Massa past. Perez, on the other hand, overtook his teammate in the same place.

When Massa dropped out of the front, the Mexican was third in the race. So even the German was out of reach for the podium.

In 2017, it was time for the fourth team of Hülkenberg’s F1 career, when he moved to the French Renault organization. The German, born in 1987, had risen to the position of a reliable driver. In the years 2013–2018, he reached the 7th–10th places in the total points each time.

At Renault, the podium was within reach a few times.

In Singapore in 2017, Hülkenberg benefited from the top drivers crashing at the start. He was third in the race until he later had to stop due to a technical fault with the car.

In the rainy conditions of the 2019 German GP, ​​Hülkenberg was strongly involved in the battle for the podium. However, he made a mistake in the corner before the main straight and slipped into the tire barrier.

Joined the team in 2019 with star driver status Daniel Ricciardo gradually put Hülkenberg in a more difficult position in the team. For 2020, the French car brand Renault hired a young Frenchman to replace him by Esteban Ocon.

At the age of 32, Hülkenberg’s F1 career seemed to have stalled.

A gig driver

The coronavirus pandemic has ravaged the world in the 2020s. For Hülkenberg, however, the pandemic has offered a significant silver lining.

Racing Point’s Sergio Perez tested positive for the coronavirus before the 2020 British race weekend. Billionaire By Lawrence Stroll owned team quickly began to map out a replacement.

This is how the team washed Nico Hülkenberg with a quick warning. Social media was hyped with a video of the German sprinting from the gate to the pit area and to the Racing Point facilities.

Positive and cheerful, Hülkenberg is a character who draws sympathy from well-informed F1 fanatics. When the German has returned to the series, the fans have been hoping for the first prize for the conker.

Due to a technical fault, Hülkenberg was unable to start Sunday’s race. However, he got a new seam when Perez couldn’t drive in the following weekend’s British GP either. Then it snapped.

After the superior Mercedes drivers, Hülkenberg was immediately third and defeated his teammate By Lance Stroll. In the competition itself, he was a promising seventh.

Nico Hülkenberg’s career started a new upswing from the weekend. At the end of the season, he also beat Lance Stroll, who was sick with the corona virus, for one race.

– Hülkenberg has always been able to finish even when he jumps into a cold ride. He has kept himself in shape and is ready, says expert Jukka Mildh.

The highest quality on the free market

Hülkenberg suddenly became the world’s fastest and best touring driver, whose contribution you could trust with the factory guarantee. The team that changed from Racing Point to Aston Martin relied on Hülkenberg again in 2020, when the four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel had to miss two races due to the corona virus.

Lance Stroll was already very familiar with the car based on, among other things, the winter tests. Hülkenberg, on the other hand, had not driven a race weekend for a year and a half. Despite these starting points, he was faster than the Canadian driver 11 years younger in qualifying times.

These performances were enough to convince the team manager of the American team Haas by Gunther Steinerwhen the team was looking for a slow driving driver for the 2023 season Mick Schumacher in place of. The place was crowded with drivers driving small formulas.

However, there was no experienced and reliable driver like Hülkenberg on the open market. For a long time, F1 has gone in a direction where even more drivers in their twenties are accepted into the series. Cases like 36-year-old Nico Hülkenberg’s are even more expensive than gold these days.

– He has a couple of reliable friends in the pit who will certainly support him. A large background team can be found in Aston Martin’s previous teams from Force India and Racing Point. He certainly has knowledgeable and influential supporters there. You need it if you want to stay involved in the sport, says Jukka Mildh.

Hülkenberg has formed the Dane of the Haas driver duo this season by Kevin Magnussen with. He reached the team’s first pole position last season.

Haas has been overall the weakest of the ten teams in the series this season. Hülkenberg, who drove a full season after a break of many years, has given a more positive image of himself than Magnussen, whose star has been on the decline since the promising last season.

Hülkenberg has been able to flash at times. In the third race of the season in Australia, the first podium place was close, as he had finished fourth in the restart at the end of the race, ahead of the one who received a time penalty after the race Carlos Sainz. However, due to the unclear situation, the race jury decided to declare the order that was before the restart as the final result. Hülkenberg was seventh.

Hulkenberg was second in the Canadian sprint time trials. The driver, who received a three grid grid penalty, dazzled at the start and was second for a while.

Earlier in the fall, Hülkenberg and Magnussen were given one-year extension contracts.

“The statistics speak for me”

Nico Hülkenberg took over in August Motorsport in an interview about his questionable record.

– Of course, it’s a bit frustrating when you start thinking about it. I’ve never had a car like that though.

– I have had good cars and some chances to reach the podium, but for some reason it has never happened. However, I am in a good and happy position. I enjoy my situation, he commented.

Jukka Mildh also reminds that Hülkenberg, who has driven in many teams, has never been able to drive in a top team. At the same time, Perez, Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas have each in turn been able to enjoy the top equipment.

– In that way, he has never been able to show his nails. However, he is a very reliable driver, which still holds him in high esteem.

In the same article, Hülkenberg pointed out a statistic that gives more perspective to how remarkable an F1 career he has had. Nico Hülkenberg has achieved by far the most points, over 500, of the drivers without a podium finish. Adrian Sutil is 124.

– The statistics speak for me.

An F1 romantic’s dream

Recently, Hülkenberg’s name has been linked to German car giant Audi joining the F1 series in 2026. It has been speculated that he and Esteban Ocon would replace the drivers of the team currently known as Alfa Romeo, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyun in 2025.

Germany, the former giant of Formula 1, is in a situation where there is a shortage of really promising young formula talent. Interest in the sport has been on the wane in the country for a long time, and there is currently no F1 competition in the series.

Among the German drivers, Hülkenberg is currently the best Audi can offer. According to Mildh, what kind of drivers Audi is looking for is more important than the German connection.

Hülkenberg’s advantage in the driver market is that he has driven for so many teams. Alfa Romeo, which becomes Audi, is the former Sauber. So there are still people familiar to Hülkenberg in the organization.

– Audi does not necessarily attract top drivers. The probability of getting into the winning car is very small. Then you need those drivers who have a lot to give and patience. Hülkenberg belongs to this group.

Nico Hülkenberg, who already prepared for the end of his F1 career four years ago, is suddenly in a situation where the dream of reaching the podium is still alive. Its realization would be F1 romance at its best.