Nico Hulkenberg: ‘F1 podium talk was cold coffee – but I'm not done yet'
From last on the starting grid in P19, the German driver and his Sauber team, now pivotally led by ex-Red Bull guru Jonathan Wheatley, executed every call and nailed every pit-stop in the dry-wet chaos to leapfrog 16 cars and finish on the podium, staving off Hamilton in the process.
A podium for Hulkenberg in a Sauber before Hamilton claims a podium for Ferrari? Nobody had that on their 2025 F1 bingo card.
Hulkenberg's glistening beam as he stood on the podium, rather amusingly holding aloft a trophy made out of Lego, will be one for the season picture-book come December. It was, without a doubt, one of the stories of the year so far.
'It's confirmation of the hard work that the team is putting in,' Hulkenberg tells The Independent, amid a run which now stands at four point-scoring finishes in a row, heading into this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix.
'The update in Barcelona [round nine] has made a really big difference. It was a big turning point in our season.
'The magnitude of the step we've made is a surprise. It's really delivered. Before, it was difficult to do anything in races but now, it's very, very positive.'
A Silverstone weekend which concluded with such unbridled joy for the 37-year-old, nicknamed 'The Hulk', started with a five-hour delay at Nice Airport due to air traffic control strikes, down the coast from his home in Monaco. As such, this one-on-one chat with Hulkenberg in the uniquely transparent Sauber motorhome, somewhat isolated at the far end of the Silverstone paddock, was delayed by several hours.
Who knows what might have happened over the subsequent days had he not been asked for the umpteenth time about his excruciating podium-less run? Funny how things work out.
'It's not something I think about,' Hulkenberg says about the preceding 238 F1 race starts, which included 112 top-10 finishes, 608 points but astonishingly, zero podiums. The German even has a pole position to his name, taking advantage again of some wet weather in his rookie season at Williams in Brazil, back in 2010.
'I don't really care or pay attention to it [podium-less streak], it's cold coffee, honestly. We're all trying to chase the best possible result. We believe that crazy things can happen, with the weather or whatever.
'You've just got to be here and ready for it. And when the day comes, take it.' The foreshadowing is uncanny.
For Hulkenberg, this 2025 mid-season surge represents the zenith of his career renaissance. Hulkenberg was brought up in Germany's most populous region, the North Rhine-Westphalia, in the city of Emmerich am Rhein on the Netherlands border. Yet quickly, his talent looked certain to cross boundaries.
NICO HULKENBERG'S F1 CAREER (2010-CURRENT)
Races: 239
Points: 608
Top-10 finishes: 113
Wins: 0
Podiums: 1
Pole positions: 1
Best drivers' championship finish: 7th in 2018 (Renault)
Rated extremely highly as a youngster – in 2009 he became the third driver after Nico Rosberg and Hamilton to win GP2 (now F2) in his rookie year – F1 stints at Williams, Force India and Renault gave him the pinnacle class of racing he craved. In fact, former manager Willi Weber compared 'The Hulk' to fellow German Michael Schumacher, a seven-time champion of the world.
His results in F1, as you will have gathered by now, were consistently impressive, without reaching stratospheric levels. Indeed, his only victory in this period was a stunning win for Porsche at the 24 Hours of Le Mans event in 2015. In doing so, Hulkenberg became the first active F1 driver to win the prestigious endurance race since Johnny Herbert and Bertrand Gachot in 1991.
But after nine years in F1, Hulkenberg was dropped at the end of 2019 and spent three seasons on the sidelines as a reserve. A second bite at the cherry, for most onlookers, did not seem forthcoming. Except, perhaps, for the man himself.
'My F1 comeback in 2023 is my biggest achievement to date,' he says, surprisingly, when asked if his Le Mans triumph was his best career accomplishment.
'As a result? Yes, sure, Le Mans. But now, to have this opportunity with Sauber and Audi next year and to still be here, keeping up with the youngsters, pushing to be in F1.
'I did need a break and a bit of a detox. It put a lot of things into perspective. But I had that feeling that I wasn't done yet. I had the desire to jump back in and be competitive again.'
An understated figure in the current driver staple of social media stars and fashion icons, Hulkenberg is now one of the sport's senior men. Alongside Max Verstappen, he is one of just two fathers on the grid, with four-year-old daughter Noemi sometimes seen tottering around the garage in search of her dad.
His rock-star spiky hair look is in deep contrast to his mellow tone; he is rarely one for exaggeration or hyperbole. Yet amid Sauber's current resurgence with Hulkenberg and F2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto at the wheel, and with German giant Audi soon taking over the reins, an outfit so defeated last year looks very much revitalised under the guidance of Wheatley and ex-Ferrari chief Mattia Binotto, as we head into the second half of the season and new regulations in 2026.
With the podium 'cold coffee' finally swallowed, there remains one obvious goal for Hulkenberg to crack. Now, the unwanted record is that he is the driver who has the most F1 races to his name without a victory.
'You always want to achieve more until you're winning,' he sums up. 'I haven't been there or done that.
'But in F1, it's not always easy. You need to be in the right spot with the right people. I'm in a big project now and it's a very exciting opportunity.
'Next year is a reset and offers an opportunity for every team. Audi are very serious whenever they enter any motorsport competition. Hopefully we can be a very big contender in the next few years.
'F1 is all about timing. For me, in my career, it hasn't clicked. Well, not yet.'
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