Hülkenberg's long and winding road could lead him to an F1 podium

F1

Nico Hülkenberg's F1 career has been long and eventful – but not overly successful at the highest level. He talks about his comeback with a Haas team on the up

2 Nico Hulkenberg Haas F1 team test 2023

Hülkenberg is back on the grid full-time after three years on the sidelines

Haas

There were many intriguing driver moves during last year’s Formula 1 silly season, and the return of Nico Hülkenberg with Haas in 2023 is one chess move that will be watched with some interest.

Inevitably some questioned Guenther Steiner’s decision to take a guy who could be considered to have had his time rather than either give Mick Schumacher another chance or hire a promising youngster from elsewhere. After all he is the same age as Sebastian Vettel, who has just opted for retirement.

It’s easy to forget now that Hülkenberg was himself once the next big thing, and that he has one of the most impressive CVs on the grid in terms of success in the junior categories. He won titles in Formula BMW, A1 GP [for the German team], F3 and GP2 on the way through the ranks, which was a hugely impressive run.

Nico Hulkenberg Williams 2010 Brazilian GP

Hülkenberg appeared destined for greatness early on, and took a pole for Williams in his debut F1 season

Getty Images

Indeed he looked set

to join Vettel, who made it to F1 three years ahead of him, in a race to see who really would be the next Michael Schumacher. That comparison was encouraged by the fact that initially he was managed by Willi Weber, the man who helped to take Michael to the top.

Hülkenberg got his first F1 break with Williams as a test driver, which led to a race seat in 2010. A superb pole at a damp Interlagos was a sign of his inherent talent. However he was shuffled out at the end of the year to make way for Pastor Maldonado, who came with his Venezuelan oil backing. Hülkenberg’s only option was to join Force India as reserve and wait for an opportunity.

You could argue that his career never quite regained the momentum that might have propelled him into a top seat, although at one stage he was connected to a Ferrari drive.

Nico Hulkenberg Porsche Le Mans 2015

2015 Le Mans win is also on the German’s impressive ‘non-F1’ CV

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He graduated to a race seat with Force India in 2012 and then made an ill-judged move to Sauber. He returned to Force India after just a season away, and later went to Renault for three years.

It’s also worth noting that along the way he also found time to win Le Mans with Porsche in 2015, adding another credit to that CV.

From the archive

However the F1 section is not so impressive. Over the years there were some good weekends, and some very good ones, but he has yet to secure a podium finish.

Since the end of his final 2019 season with Renault he has been out of a fulltime job. He returned to ‘Team Silverstone’ as a reserve, and successive bouts of Covid for Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel gave him a few opportunities to race and show that he could still get the job done.

Nevertheless after a couple of outings with Aston Martin at the start of last year even he seemed to have accepted that he’d missed the boat, and that he wouldn’t get another chance.

In the light of the Schumacher comparisons earlier in his career it was perhaps ironic that an unexpected opportunity came courtesy of a fraught 2022 season at Haas for Michael’s son Mick. As is well documented in Drive to Survive the younger German had a series of huge accidents, and team boss Guenther Steiner ran out of patience.

Nico Hulkenberg Haas F1 team launch 2023

Hülkenberg was hired in place of the error-prone Mick Schumacher

Haas

Having already replaced the outlawed Nikita Mazepin with Kevin Magnussen at the start of 2022 he accepted that the decision to go with two rookies the year before had not paid off. The sheer cost of crash damage proved key to a team that had to balance its limited budget and at the same time was also heading towards nudging the cost cap in 2023.

Quite simply he wanted another experienced driver, and when the Ferrari-favoured Antonio Giovinazzi had a silly crash at the start of FP1 in Austin it was obvious that Hülkenberg would get the nod.

Thus far Steiner couldn’t be happier with the choice, and Hülkenberg was up to speed from the start of testing in Bahrain.

“What impressed me is how he got in the car yesterday morning and was very comfortable with it very quickly,” said the team boss. “He got straight onto it, did his job. Seemed to be like he was here already since a year. I mean, I’m not exaggerating, I was quite impressed by that. So that’s very good.

“They are two experienced drivers. So everything was very calm. Nico came back very prepared, there was not an issue of anything. I mean, he did the shakedown a few days ago, and learned about the car. It was a very smooth coming to the team. And Kevin just continued where he was last year. It was basically a non-event.”

Hülkenberg himself seemed surprised that there would be any question about his ability to get in and be on it straight away, given that he had remained in the F1 loop over the past three years.

“I haven’t been away fully, it’s 12 months ago that I still did something again in this industry,” he said when I told him that Steiner was impressed.

4 Nico Hulkenberg Haas F1 team test 2023

F1 veteran has had relatively seamless transition back into F1 action so far, impressing Haas boss Guenther Steiner

Haas

“The cars change a little bit here and there over time, the tyres change a little bit, but the way things work and to drive a race car, the laws and the physics, they don’t change.

“You have to work around them and then see what you have with your car and understand it and work with it. I’m not surprised in that respect. I think it was two good half days so far. I don’t know honestly where we stand, but of course the car is not perfect.

“We have areas to work on and where we need to improve. But for me it’s important what I said earlier, the feeling I have already, where I feel that I’m in the car and that I’m the driver and not the car driving me, which is always unpleasant. That feels not bad so far.”

From the archive

He seemed genuinely pleased with the way the car behaved: “Generally I’m pretty pleased how it went – so that’s worth a lot for me, because that’s the foundation that I build on the rest of the season we’re going from here. So far, so good.”

When Hülkenberg jumped into the Aston in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia last year his team was disappointed that he perhaps wasn’t as fit as they’d usually hope that a reserve driver on standby would be. This time around, and with months to prepare, he hasn’t left anything to chance.

“Yeah, I’m in a much better position,” he said when I put that to him. “Having said that testing, you also have breaks in between the runs, the fast, slow, fast business anyway, it’s not so physical because the slow laps are like you can have lunch in them. It’s good. Yesterday, I did continuous running in the middle of the day when it’s hot, no problems.”

Hülkenberg believes there’s more to come as he gets properly back into the swing of things and works his way through a few race weekends.

Nico Hulkenberg Haas F1 team test 2023

Haas is aiming to consolidate its midfield position

Haas

“That never stops. I think that learning curve and that trajectory will keep going up with more mileage with more races in the bag, because you keep learning, then an update will come to the car and things change again, you adjust, you adapt, and you’re constantly improving and learning.

“It’s not you reach it and then you stand still, it’s a continuous process. But of course, I’m not at my maximum yet. Next week, we’ll see how far to the maximum or not.”

Haas got off to a strong start last year and in Bahrain the team seemed to be very much in the midfield mix again, and potentially fighting for points. So what would satisfy Hülkenberg?

“My target is to have fun and to drive a strong weekend. As always, the boring standard classic line, points would be nice, but it’s just speculation. It’s impossible to predict, but of course everyone in and around the midfield wants those points.

“When you’re in the car in the afternoon there’s so much communication with your team, so many discussions. There’s no time really to see what others do. So I just looked at what we did all afternoon. I suspect as always, it’s going to get tight once everyone drops the curtain. We’ll see what happens.”

Haas certainly looked solid in testing, and decent reliability helped the team to log miles. Steiner, who this time last year was dealing with the Mazepin saga in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is altogether much happier.

“We are feeling pretty good because the car is reliable this year, or up to now, fingers crossed,” he said.

“Last year we struggled at this moment in time because we had so much downtime, except that problem with the throttle, we didn’t have any issue at all. We got all our programme in and went through our test programme, and everybody’s happy.”

The key to Haas’s season will be to keep up in the development race, which wasn’t always the case in the past. This time the team seems to have a clearly defined path.

3 Nico Hulkenberg Haas F1 team test 2023

Can Hülkenberg finally snare a debut podium in the twilight of his F1 career?

Haas

“We started already with the upgrades,” said Steiner. “When you have a plan in place, like this year, we are a lot better prepared. So we have got a plan in place. And hopefully we’ll get some upgrades soon. If they show results in the wind tunnel, for sure we’ll make them and bring them to the racetrack.”

Asked to expand on why he feels the team is better prepared he made his thoughts clear: “It’s just we are better organised. I think last year, we were back after two difficult years. And everything was a little bit last moment. This year the guys put a lot of effort in starting last year in the middle of the year to make a plan to get everything organised much better.

“And our design office last year was only 10 months old. Now it’s two years old, almost. So it’s a difference. We just got more organised. So that is the only reason why I say that.”

Could Hülkenberg finally get that missing F1 podium for his CV in 2023? It will take some mayhem ahead and probably a chaotic rain-affected race, but at least the odds are that Haas could be close enough to take advantage.

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