The story is well known, but after the first podium of Nico Hülkenberg in Formula 1, it was warmed up here and there in the past few days: in 2020 the German was also on Red Bull for the second cockpit next to Max Verstappen …
“That was before we took Checo Perez,” also confirms Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko in conversation with OE24: “In retrospect, you are always Gscheiter. Checo won at the time, Hülkenberg got races away at the time,” explains the Austrian, for example, alluding to Hülkenberg at his home Grand Prix in Hockenheim in 2019.
Marko is still happy about the late happiness of the German, says: “Now he is better. The older he gets, the fewer mistakes he makes. That is why he also has a good contract with Audi.” The good contract with top team Red Bull, however, snapped at the time in the fight for the cockpit adversary Perez, who, after his premiere for Racing Point 2020 in Bahrain, celebrated five victories for the group from Milton Keynes and became vice world champion in 2023.
Nico Hülkenberg vs. Sergio Perez: Duel for years
At that time it was by no means the first duel between Hülkenberg and Perez, the two were teammates at Force India from 2014 to 2016 – with the slightly better outcome for the Mexican, who was able to prevail in the time together with 238 to 226 World Cup points and end up in the final classification twice before Hülkenberg.
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However, if it is about another ex -teammate of the German, Hülkenberg was quite unlucky, because the timing of his time together with Perez did not exactly play on him – at least Jolyon Palmer, who believes in terms of Hülkenberg: “He was never available for podium places.”
However, with one exception: “I think the most competitive car that Nico has ever driven was probably the Force India at the beginning of the hybrid era, i.e. between 2014 and 2016. In this car, his team -mate Sergio Perez made it four times on the podium, but Nico was denied – although the two were quite equal about their time together,” writes the Brit in a guest post for the official Formula 1 website.
Palmer analyzes: “Didn’t really fit Nico’s driving style”
Palmer continues: “However, I believe that this generation of vehicles did not really fit Nico’s driving style. He came to me in the Renault team in 2017 – just in the year of a comprehensive change of regulations, with vehicles that in their performance and output more like what we know today. And I think that was much better because it was more of his natural driving style.”
The Briton, which brought it to 35 Grand Prix starts in 2016 and 2017 and died twice in Malaysia and Singapore during this time, points out: “The narrower cars with reduced output between 2014 and 2016 were rather designed for a braking and accelerator.” Some pilots, such as late brakes Daniel Ricciardo or Mercedes-Speerspitze Lewis Hamilton, were able to use this for their advantage.
Conversely, according to Palmer, the cars at that time had other limits: “You couldn’t take a particularly high cornering speed with you, because the cars simply did not stick to the street like their predecessors or successors. They were over motorized and had too little offset – that meant that you had to be extremely careful when accelerating and braking in a straight line.”
V-shaped against U-shaped: advantage perez
Palmer analyzes: “A much V -shaped driving style was in demand – and this is exactly where Checo Perez was able to shine with his ability to protect the rear tires particularly well.” Not so Hülkenberg: “Nico, on the other hand, is a driver with an outstanding feeling for grip and naturally drives a significantly rounder, U-shaped curve style,” explains the ex-teammate of German.
“He may not be the absolute late braking, but the speed he can take through a curve is enormous – and that was exactly what was rewarded with the new regulations that brought more downforce. In 2017 I had to experience this myself,” admits Palmer, who was then replaced by Carlos Sainz at the French workshop at the end of the season.