Nico Hülkenberg has now completed 200 Grands Prix in Formula 1, but the German has not been on the podium once. Hülkenberg has held this unpopular record for a while, and although he never wanted to achieve a top-three result, he was still able to build a long career in Formula 1.
That’s why he doesn’t actually find this fact so tragic: “I can still live with it and have a good career,” the Haas driver told “Sky” in light of his anniversary. “I do what I love.”
In any case, in his opinion, Hülkenberg is not someone who pays much attention to statistics. “It’s a fact, 200 Grands Prix are 200 Grands Prix,” he says. “I have that, no one can take that away from me. I look back on a good time, on a good career.”
He blames the fact that it didn’t work out for him on the podium on very pragmatic things: “I never had the right material or the top car for it. So it was of course more difficult for me to achieve that,” he knows. But of course he also knows that he would definitely have had opportunities – Brazil 2012 or Hockenheim 2019 come to mind.
“There were a few situations that I can count on one hand where it could have or should have happened, but unfortunately other circumstances came up that prevented it,” he says. Conclusion: “That’s right.”
For his compatriot Timo Glock, Hülkenberg definitely had the potential for a top team. “He’s shown that often enough,” says the “Sky” expert. However, he did not always have the right timing when making his team decisions.
Switching to Clean a mistake?
Glock remembers the change from Force India to Sauber in 2013. “The year before, Sauber was very, very strong, was on the podium several times with Sergio Perez and Kobayashi. And then it didn’t work anymore the next year.”
In the same way, Hülkenberg definitely had a chance of a podium at his other stations. Hockenheim 2019 is often mentioned, where he took off in the Renault on a wet track.” But these are all situations like that, where you have to make decisions in milliseconds. Where you simply make a decision in a millisecond, it then has a big impact has,” said Glock.
“And at that time he realized where he was in the wall, crap, that was probably it now.”
The timing wasn’t right
But according to the German, this doesn’t just affect his compatriot, but many drivers in the pit lane. “There are so many drivers who have the talent to be at the front, but for some reason it didn’t work out,” he says.
“Nico Hülkenberg is just someone whose timing wasn’t right. But there’s no question that he’s someone who has the talent and the speed to be at the front and that’s why he would be a good decision for a big team .”
That seems unlikely, but Hülkenberg can live with that too.