Nico
Hülkenberg

Nico Hülkenberg was born on 19 August 1987 in Emmerich am Rhein, Germany. He started karting at the age of ten, was German Junior Kart champion in 2002 and won the German Kart Championship the following year. In 2005 he took the Formula BMW ADAC title. In the 2006/07 A1 Grand Prix season he drove for Germany and won nine races, and Germany took the championship. After winning the 2007 Masters of Formula 3 at Zolder, he took the Formula 3 Euro Series title in 2008. In 2009 he won the GP2 championship with ART in his first season, becoming the third rookie champion after Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.

Hülkenberg was a Williams test driver from 2007 to 2009 and made his Formula One debut for the team in Bahrain in 2010. He scored his first points with tenth place in Malaysia. At the Brazilian Grand Prix he put the car on pole position in a rain-affected qualifying session, Williams' first since 2005, and finished the race eighth. Williams then parted company with him, and in 2011 he was Force India's reserve driver, running in Friday practice sessions.

In 2012 he was promoted to a full-time race seat at Force India and finished fourth in Belgium. In the final race of that year in Brazil he led for a time, but collided with Hamilton, served a drive-through penalty and came home fifth. In 2013 he drove for Sauber and was fourth in Korea. He was back at Force India from 2014 to 2016 and finished the 2014 championship ninth with 96 points. From 2017 to 2019 he raced for Renault. In 2018 he was seventh in the standings with 69 points and finished fifth in Germany. Renault chose Esteban Ocon as his replacement for 2020.

In 2020 Hülkenberg stood in for Sergio Pérez and Lance Stroll at Racing Point. He finished seventh in the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix and eighth in the Eifel Grand Prix after qualifying only 20th. From 2021 he was the reserve driver of the team, by then racing as Aston Martin, and in 2022 he replaced Sebastian Vettel in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. He raced for Haas alongside Kevin Magnussen in 2023 and 2024, and qualified second at the 2023 Canadian Grand Prix.

He rejoined Sauber in 2025. In the rain-affected British Grand Prix he finished third behind Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri after starting 19th. It was his first podium and ended a record run of races without a top-three finish. It was also Sauber's first podium in 13 years. In 2026 he drives for Audi, which has taken over Sauber. In 2015 he had already won the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Porsche, sharing the car with Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber.

Source: Wikipedia, “Nico Hülkenberg”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.