Over the course of an F1 career that began with Williams in 2010, Nico Hulkenberg holds the unfortunate record of the most Grand Prix entries without ever claiming a win.
Nico Hulkenberg‘s 15-year CV in F1 has seen him race for a number of different teams that are all mainly seen as midfield challengers within the grid’s hierarchy.
The German driver’s best-placed performance over a season came in 2018, when he finished in the seventh-place ‘best of the rest’ position of the drivers’ championship whilst driving for Renault alongside Carlos Sainz.
AS TEAMMATESSAIHULPoints scored107112Best result5th5thQualifying head-to-head916Race head-to-head1111Sainz vs Hulkenberg at Renault, 2017-2018
He found himself without a drive in F1 two seasons later when the team replaced him with Esteban Ocon, who was without a seat at the time. In hindsight, Hulkenberg has admitted that losing his seat for the 2020 season was the best thing to happen for his career.
He returned to the sport full-time in 2023 with Haas and finally secured his first podium in F1 at the British Grand Prix in July. Journalists noted that Hulkenberg’s podium was the first time they had ever seen the F1 media centre cheer in unison.
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Nico Hulkenberg’s ‘lack of social intelligence’ hampered his chances of joining the best F1 teams
Speaking on Sky Sports F1’s coverage of the Belgian Grand Prix (27/7 1:18pm), former F1 driver Nico Rosberg gave his opinion on why we haven’t seen Hulkenberg get given a chance in a seat that is capable of winning races or challenging for a world championship.
“Well, I would put it down to his Achilles’ heel, throughout his career, being a little bit of a lack of social intelligence,” the 2016 world champion theorised.
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“As a driver, it’s part of your job to get yourself in the best team and the best car. Otherwise, you will not be able to win races. And I think that’s something that went wrong for him.
“Too many times did we hear from team bosses, ‘that guy was a little bit difficult, we may prioritise another driver over him,’ things like that. So, I think if anything, that may have been his weakness so far in the sport.”
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Nico Hulkenberg previously revealed that he’s been waiting for an F1 offer from Ferrari for over ten years
Hulkenberg previously revealed that he was on the radar at Ferrari for a potential race seat in 2014. The team opted to sign Kimi Raikkonen from Lotus to partner Fernando Alonso instead, with Hulkenberg stating that he never received a reason for the snub.
Formula E driver Sam Bird noted Hulkenberg’s build as the reason he was never given a shot in some race-winning F1 machinery. The Brit declared that Hulkenberg possessed the talent of a champion, but his taller stature severely hampered his chances of a seat at some of the front runners of the sport.
With Audi‘s introduction to F1 coming at the same time as the sport’s overhaul of regulations next season, there’s a slim chance that we might get to see Hulkenberg racing in a competitive car, providing they hit the development nail on the head.
We could see the German driver produce some more stellar drives if so. F1 commentator John Watson tipped Hulkenberg to be the ‘next Michael Schumacher’ going off of his A1 Grand Prix results in the early stages of his career.