Nico Hülkenberg

Nico Hülkenberg
Formula One World Championship career
Hülkenberg at the 2011 Spanish Grand Prix
Born	(1987-08-19) 19 August 1987 Emmerich am Rhein, West Germany
Nationality	German
Team	Force India-Mercedes^[1]
Car number	27
Races	81 (80 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	238
Pole positions	1
Fastest laps	1
First race	2010 Bahrain Grand Prix
Last race	2015 Bahrain Grand Prix
2014 position	9th (96 pts)

Nicolas "Nico" Hülkenberg (German pronunciation: [ˈniːko ˈhʏlkənbɛɐ̯k], born 19 August 1987) is a German professional racing driver currently racing for the Sahara Force India Formula 1 Team. He was the 2009 champion of the GP2 Series, and is a previous champion of both the Formula 3 Euro Series and A1 Grand Prix, as part of A1 Team Germany. He is one of three drivers since 2005 to win the GP2 series championship in his debut season, the others being Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

Hülkenberg raced in Formula One in 2010 with the Williams team. Despite winning the first pole position for Williams in over 5 years he was not retained for 2011, and joined Force India as a test and reserve driver. He was promoted to a race seat with the team for the 2012 season, joining Paul di Resta.^[2]^[3] In 2013 he drove for the Sauber team,^[4] with Mexican driver Esteban Gutiérrez as his team-mate.^[5] Hülkenberg returned to Force India for the 2014 season.^[6]

Career

Early career

Born in Emmerich am Rhein, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany, Hülkenberg made his karting debut in 1997, at the age of 10. In 2002 he was German Junior Karting Champion and the following year he won the German Kart Championship.^[7]

Hülkenberg was previously managed by Willi Weber, the long-time manager of Michael Schumacher. Weber predicted that Hülkenberg would be ready for Formula One by 2008. He also praised Hülkenberg as an "unbelievable talent" and said he reminded him of Schumacher as a young driver. He also stated that he nicknamed him "The Hulk", after the fictional superhero, in reference to Hülkenberg changing his personality whilst at the wheel.^[8]

Formula BMW (2005)

2005 saw his debut in German Formula BMW. His first season was a very successful one, with Hülkenberg dominating the championship and winning the title comfortably. He finished first in the Formula BMW world final but was stripped of the win after it was claimed he had brake-tested his rivals during a safety car period.^[7]

A1 Grand Prix (2006–07)

He also joined the German A1 Grand Prix team for the 2006–07 season. Nine wins in his rookie season made him the most successful driver in A1GP history. It meant he almost single-handedly won Germany the championship with 128 points, 35 more than Team New Zealand.^[7]

Formula Three (2006–08)

Hülkenberg finished fifth in the German Formula Three Championship (ATS Formel 3 Cup) in 2006. For 2007 he switched to the Formula 3 Euro Series with the ASM team that had taken Lewis Hamilton and Paul di Resta to the last two championships. His first win came at the Norisring^[7] from 18th on the grid, he won again in the rain at Zandvoort^[9] and added a third at the Nürburgring.^[10] But he ran into trouble at Magny-Cours, being penalised in qualifying for passing the chequered flag twice, and crashing into Filip Salaquarda in the race.^[7]

He won the (non-championship) Masters of Formula 3 race at Zolder from team mate (and F3 Euro Series championship leader) Romain Grosjean after Grosjean stalled at the start.^[11]

Hülkenberg won the Formula 3 Euro Series championship in 2008. Almost unbeatable on a Saturday, Hülkenberg amassed 76 of his total of 85 points during the feature races run that day, taking seven wins in the progress.

GP2 Series (2009)

Hülkenberg driving for ART Grand Prix at the Monaco round of the 2009 GP2 Series season

He made his GP2 Asia Series début for the ART Grand Prix team at the third round of the 2008–09 GP2 Asia Series season in Bahrain, where he took pole position at his first attempt.^[12] He finished both races in fourth place and this left him in seventh place in the championship. His second race weekend in Qatar, saw him become the first night race pole-sitter, and promptly turned that into becoming the first race-winner under lights after a dominant performance. Such was his performance that he ended up over thirteen seconds clear of second-placed driver Sergio Pérez.^[13] He finished third in the sprint race, taking his championship points tally to 27 from just four races. Despite this, he finished sixth in the championship.

Hülkenberg continued with ART into the 2009 GP2 Series season (partnering Pastor Maldonado), and took his first win in dominant fashion, during his home round of the series at the Nürburgring. With the series' top eight inverted grid, Hülkenberg started eighth for the sprint race. He won the sprint race as well, becoming the first driver to do the weekend double since Giorgio Pantano at Monza in the 2006 season. In doing so, he became only the second driver to complete the clean sweep, with pole position, two fastest laps and two wins; equalling the achievements of Nelson Piquet, Jr., who achieved it at the Hungaroring, also in 2006. Hülkenberg clinched the title with two races to spare, after a third place finish in the Monza sprint race, shadowing Brazilians Luiz Razia and Lucas di Grassi home. The result left him with an unassailable 22-point lead heading to the final round, and in the process becoming the first driver to clinch the championship without the need for a final round decider. A fifth win followed at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, allowing the German to break the 100-point barrier, and eventually won the title by 25 points from Vitaly Petrov. Worthy of note is that Hülkenberg ended the season 64 points clear of his team mate Pastor Maldonado, who would later go on to get his Williams race seat for the 2011 F1 season.

Formula One

Hülkenberg scored his first World Championship point at the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix.

Hülkenberg first drove a Formula One car in a test for Williams in 2007. His manager, Willi Weber, had organised the test after failing to conclude a deal with Renault boss Flavio Briatore. The two-day test was held at the Circuito de Jerez in Spain, and Hülkenberg outpaced Williams' driver Kazuki Nakajima, and set laptimes 0.4 seconds slower than Nico Rosberg.^[14] Hülkenberg's performance at the test led to the Williams team signing him as a test driver, and he competed in several test sessions in addition to racing in lower formulae.^[14] His test contract with Williams was extended for 2009, despite in-season tests being banned from that season.^[15] Hülkenberg would also act as the team's reserve driver, in the event of the regular drivers being unable to compete.

Williams (2010)

On 2 November 2009, Hülkenberg was confirmed to race for Williams in 2010.^[16] Hülkenberg's team-mate for his first season would be the experienced driver Rubens Barrichello, who moved from Brawn GP which in turn was bought out by Mercedes-Benz.

Hülkenberg made his debut at the Bahrain Grand Prix, recovering from an early spin to finish in fourteenth position. At the second round in Australia, he was involved in a first-lap incident with Kamui Kobayashi, after the Japanese driver's front wing failed and sent him into the barrier, rebounding into the path of Hülkenberg. At the third round in Malaysia, Hülkenberg made it to Q3 for the first time, qualifying in fifth place; out-qualifying team-mate Barrichello for the first time. Hülkenberg looked set to finish eleventh in the race until Fernando Alonso blew his engine three laps from the end, thus promoting Hülkenberg to tenth place and with the new-for-2010 points system, Hülkenberg along with Jaime Alguersuari scored their first points in Formula One. He was tenth again at Silverstone, and at the Hungarian Grand Prix he finished sixth, a career best. He also picked up points finishes in Italy, Singapore, and Korea. At the Japanese Grand Prix, Renault driver Vitaly Petrov misjudged a move at the start and cut across Hülkenberg's nose thus taking them both out of the race. Towards the end of the season there were reports that he could lose his seat at Williams to the GP2 Series champion Pastor Maldonado due to the money Maldonado could bring to the team.^[17] Force India's Adrian Sutil was also linked to replace Hülkenberg at Williams.

On 6 November he gained his first Formula One pole position, by 1.049 seconds over Sebastian Vettel at the Brazilian Grand Prix. This was the Williams team's first pole position since the 2005 European Grand Prix. Hülkenberg completed a final lap after pole position was already secured, increasing his gap to the rest of the field.^[18] After losing the lead on the opening lap, he eventually finished the race in eighth place.

After the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, team boss Frank Williams confirmed that Hülkenberg would not be driving for the team in 2011.^[19]

Force India (2011–2012)

2011

Hülkenberg as Force India's third driver at the 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix.

By the time of the 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix, Hülkenberg had been promoted to a full-time race seat.

Hülkenberg at the 2012 US Grand Prix

On 26 January 2011, Hülkenberg was confirmed as Force India's reserve driver for the 2011 season, where he would drive for the team in the Friday practice sessions.^[20] He replaced Paul di Resta, who was promoted to a race position in the team. Hülkenberg competed in the first practice sessions of all the races apart from Monaco, Hungary, Korea, India and Abu Dhabi. On 16 December 2011, Force India announced di Resta and Hülkenberg would be their drivers for the 2012 season.^[2]

2012

Hülkenberg qualified ninth for the Australian Grand Prix, six places ahead of di Resta, but his race ended on the first lap after picking up damage in a first-corner incident before retiring further round the course. He picked up his first points for Force India the following weekend, at the Malaysian Grand Prix; he finished in ninth place, having started the race in sixteenth. He again qualified sixteenth, for the Chinese Grand Prix. He achieved his best Formula One finish with a fourth place at the Belgian Grand Prix. Hülkenberg didn't score any points in Italy or Singapore, but collected points at all of the next five Grands Prix, except on the Yas Marina Circuit where he was involved in a collision on the first lap, and subsequently retired. This was the first time he scored points in more than two races in a row.

In the last race of the season, the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix, Hülkenberg qualified 7th but was promoted to 6th after Pastor Maldonado received a 10 place grid penalty. By lap three he had moved forward two places and on lap five he passed Fernando Alonso for third place. He moved into second position when McLaren's Lewis Hamilton pitted on lap 11. Hülkenberg then passed Jenson Button at the start of lap 19 to take the lead. He and Button built up a 45 second lead before the safety car was deployed because of debris on the track. He still led until he was passed by Hamilton, after sliding at the entry of Turn 8 on lap 49. On lap 55 he collided with Hamilton when the rear of Hülkenberg's car slid out while trying to pass him at Turn 1. This ended Hamilton's last race for McLaren. After being given a drive-through penalty as a result of the incident, Hülkenberg finished fifth, allowing him to take 11th place in the drivers' championship from Kamui Kobayashi.

Hülkenberg finished the year 17 points ahead of his teammate Paul di Resta and he out-qualified him 12 times, to di Resta's eight.

Sauber (2013)

On 31 October 2012 Sauber confirmed they had signed Hülkenberg for the 2013 season to replace Sergio Pérez, who moved to McLaren.^[21]

Hülkenberg at the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix.

Hülkenberg failed to start the Australian Grand Prix due to a leak in the fuel system of his Sauber C32; he had qualified eleventh for the race,^[22] but was withdrawn for safety reasons.^[23] At the Malaysian Grand Prix, Hülkenberg qualified in twelfth, but finished the race in eighth place.^[24] Hülkenberg put in his best qualifying performance of the season to date at the Italian Grand Prix to put himself 3rd on the grid. After losing two places to the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso, he managed to keep 5th place even though harried by the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg towards the end of the race. By finishing in fifth place, he overtook Toro Rosso driver Jean-Éric Vergne in the drivers' championship. His best finish was at the Korean Grand Prix where he finished 4th after close battle with Hamilton and Alonso, in which he showed impressive defending skills and made no mistakes.

Return to Force India (2014–)

Hülkenberg at the 2014 Singapore Grand Prix

On 3 December 2013, Force India confirmed they had signed Hülkenberg for 2014 to race alongside Sergio Pérez. In the first round, Hülkenberg finished the Australian Grand Prix in seventh place – his first finish in Melbourne – but was promoted to sixth after the disqualification of second-placed Daniel Ricciardo. He later finished fifth at the Malaysian Grand Prix, spending a large amount of time in fourth place, holding off Ferrari's Fernando Alonso before being overtaken. Another fifth place at Bahrain put Hülkenberg in third place of the drivers' standings, behind the two Mercedes drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

At the Chinese Grand Prix Hülkenberg took sixth place, taking eight points. He fell to fourth place in the Drivers' Championship after Fernando Alonso finished in third place. Force India lost second in the Constructors' Championship to Red Bull Racing.

In October 2014, Force India confirmed they had re-signed Hülkenberg for 2015.^[25]

Sportscars

It was confirmed in November 2014 that Hülkenberg would compete in the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans in a third factory-backed Porsche 919 Hybrid. He will also contest the Spa-Francorchamps round of the World Endurance Championship as preparation.^[26]

Racing record