Nico Hulkenberg - a tale of unfulfilled F1 potential and an ignominious podium record

On his 34th birthday, we look at the racing career of German Formula 1 driver Nico Hulkenberg - and how it should have been better.

Nico Hulkenberg in a file photo. (Image: Hulkenberg's Twitter)
By Shayne Dias | Aug 19, 2021 | 5 Min Read follow icon Follow Us

Nico Hulkenberg has had, by all accounts, a fairly decent Formula 1 career. The German driver, who is currently Aston Martin’s reserve option, has been an active part of the sport for over 10 years. During that time, he’s raced for a number of notable teams. This includes Williams, Sauber, Force India, Renault and of course Racing Point – the former Force India now going by Aston Martin. Such longevity is in itself nothing to be scoffed at. F1 has a history of chewing up and spitting out a number of promising drivers, after all. Yet even keeping that in mind, there is a nagging feeling that Hulkenberg could have done more.

On his 34th birthday, we take a look back at Hulkenberg’s career – and analyse why it should have been better.

Early days

Hulkenberg’s early days in racing showed plenty of promise. He did well in the German Formula BMW series as well as the A1 Grand Prix series.

He would then go on to do well in both Formula 3 and GP2, which would later become Formula 2. Indeed, his F2 exploits made him stand out.

He only raced in F2 for a season but won the championship, becoming the fifth driver since 2005 to win the title in his first season. The other four? Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, Charles Leclerc and George Russell.

Given that two of those four won world championships and the other two are seen as world champions in the waiting, it is safe to say Hulkenberg showed plenty of promise in his early career.

Indeed, his promise was such that Hulkenberg was notably managed by Willi Weber, the man who is most renowed for managing Michael Schumacher. Weber believed that ‘The Hulk’ as he christened the young German was at least a future race winner.

Nico Hulkenberg eventually got his big break at Williams in 2010, where he had been a test driver since 2007.

Nico Hulkenberg – from up to down and up and down again

His first season at Williams went about as well as could be expected. He had multiple points finishes and at times looked better than his more experienced teammate, Rubens Barrichello.

Yet he was dropped from the team after a year – mostly for reasons unrelated to his race craft. He was replaced by Pastor Maldonando, mainly due to the Venezuelan having more sponsorship money to offer.

Incidentally, while Maldonado was the 2010 GP2 champion, it’s worth noting that in 2009 he finished 64 points behind Hulkenberg in the standings.

Hulkenberg would join Force India, but only as a reserve driver. A year later, he would be back in the sport, this time at the same team while partnering Paul di Resta.

Hulkenberg would outperform his more experienced teammate by a significant margin. Not only did he score 17 more points, he also out-qualified Di Resta on 12 occasions.

Despite that, he chose to move to Sauber for the 2013 season. He finished 10th in the driver’s championship, an improvement despite scoring less points (he scored 63 in 2012 and only 51 in 2013).

He would be back at Force India a year later though, where he stayed until 2016 and helped the team become a credible midfield side. Alongside Sergio Perez, the team had a driver line-up that could regularly compete for points.

In 2017, he joined Renault on a multi-year deal. The French manufacturer’s endured a tough 2016 but were backed by more money having reentered the sport that same year.

The team made a slow start but a new upgrade made them more competitive. Hulkenberg also outperformed teammate Jolyon Palmer, who was dropped mid-season for Carlos Sainz. Notably, Palmer had scored 0 points to Hulkenberg’s 34.

The unwanted podium record

Yet it was the 2017 season which saw Nico Hulkenberg become the driver with the most race starts to not get a podium finish. He surpassed former Force India driver Adrian Sutil, who started 128 races without a podium finish, at the 2017 Singapore GP.

Incidentally, he looked set to get a podium in that race but an oil leak brought about a premature end to his race. Despite that, he had a better showing in 2018.

His consistent points finishes saw him finish 7th in the driver’s standings. Thus he was the unofficial ‘best of the rest’ as the top 6 positions were taken up by the Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull drivers.

Despite that, his F1 career was coming to a close – although no one really knew for sure at the time. In 2019, he was partnered by Daniel Ricciardo at Renault. This was a big deal for two reasons.

First was that Hulkenberg had been the default main driver of the team since he joined in 2017. Yet Ricciardo was a multi-time race winner with Red Bull and was expected to push the team forward.

Secondly, Hulkenberg himself said his future would depend on how well he coud go toe-to-toe with Ricciardo. Indeed, this was the first time since 2010 he was partnering a race-winning driver.

The season-long duel did not end well for Hulkenberg, who scored 17 points less than Ricciardo. He was then replaced for the 2020 season by Esteban Ocon.

There was a little acrimony over that decision, since Hulkenberg hinted at Renault’s desire to have a French driver in the side. Alain Prost, the former F1 champion and the team’s non-executive vice president, countered that argument.

Prost said Hulkenberg was offered a one-year deal which he refused.

Nico Hulkenberg: 2020’s star stand-in and Aston Martin reserve driver

Hulkenberg was without a seat for 2020. However, he would fill in for Racing Point – the former Force India under new management – on three seperate occasions.

The first two races were back-to-back outings at Silverstone, England for the British and 70th Anniversary GP. The reason he was called up was due to Sergio Perez twice testing positive for COVID-19.

He then also raced at the Eifel GP at the Nurburgring in Germany when Lance Stroll, the team’s other driver, felt unwell.

Hulkenberg would not finish the British GP, but his next two races saw him finish seventh and eighth, respectively. He even won the ‘Driver of the Day’ award in his final race.

In 2021, the team – now going by Aston Martin – kept Hulkenberg on but only as a reserve driver. As things stand, he is being linked with a Formula 1 return for 2022 but nothing is set in stone.

Fans will doubtless hope he can come back and get the podium finish he so deserves. Or at least get a chance to end his F1 career on his own terms.