Back in 2010, a young 22-year-old German boy going by the name of Nico Hulkenberg joined the Williams F1 team after clinching the GP2 title by 25 points, taking five wins along the way.
Clinching at least one title every year since he started in single seaters back in 2005, Hulkenberg was a driver mentioned up and down the paddock, earmarked by top teams as a future Formula One champion, dubbed by some as the ‘new Schumacher’ before Sebastian Vettel came along. During his debut season, he claimed his first pole position and the Williams’ team first for five years at the Interlagos circuit but despite this flash of brilliance he was dropped for the 2011 season in favour of former GP2 team mate, Pastor Maldonado. This the first sign of Hulkenberg losing out to the current financial struggles most teams were experiencing – Williams opting to pick the millions Maldonado had brought over from Venezuela.
Fortunately for Hulkenberg, Force India had noticed his talent and saved him being ousted from F1 after just once season by taking him on as the team’s reserve driver in 2011, giving him a run out in the majority of the morning Friday sessions. The 2012 season saw Hulkenberg promoted to race driver alongside Paul di Resta in place of Adrian Sutil, a move very much welcomed by all in the sport’s community. Out-qualifying his team mate 12-8 and a string of top 10 finishes, and leading for a number of laps in the dramatic season finale – once again at a damp Interlagos, a final standings position 17 points and several positions clear of di Resta wasn’t enough to be retained by Force India and in 2013 a race seat at Sauber beckoned. After a strained start to the 2013 season, the Sauber car improved and with that came along the top ten finishes, the highest being fourth place in Korea – Hulkenberg almost certainly out performing the car on a number of occasions while rookie team mate Esteban Gutierrez notched up just one points-paying finish.
These performances only further fuelled the fire that Hulkenberg was to be signed by a top team for 2014. Ferrari were the first team on the radar, apparently verbally agreeing a deal with the young German but once Raikkonen’s departure from Lotus was announced, Ferrari reportedly sent a message to Hulkenberg saying the deal was off. With Raikkonen’s Lotus departure came along a seat at the same team, team principal at the time – Eric Bouiller- stating Hulkenberg was on the list and the seat was his if Quantum F1 invested in the team as promised. Speculation was rife of the man in charge of Quantum being in financial ruin, the promised investment not happening and Hulkenberg once again losing out to Pastor Maldonado and his millions. A return to Force India was Hulkenberg’s only option after a rumoured seat at Mclaren was also too ruled out due to weight restrictions – Hulkenberg’s height not working in his favour.
Even though the Force India has out performed the Lotus in every grand prix this season and a bullet dodged, fans have questioned why Hulkenberg is always wanted but never signed up by a winning team. Through his F1 career, Hulkenberg has been moved aside for pay drivers, a move you can understand to an extent with a majority of teams unable to survive the current climate without this injection of money. Hulkenberg of all the drivers, comes with the least financial backing but has no urgency to seek this as he, like many before him, too believes ‘talent should come ahead of money’ – a belief he’s stuck by since his entrance in to the sport.
Another barrier facing Hulkenberg is the young driver academies all but a few teams have formed over the recent years – the man himself for some crazy reason not being picked up by one. Ferrari, Red Bull and Mclaren have the more established academies and the drivers in these such as, Jules Bianchi, Stoffel Vandoorne and Alex Lynn all tipped to become future champions for the teams running their respected academies. Red Bull, apart from Webber and Coulthard, have always had their drivers placed in the F1 team all becoming race winners and Vettel a four-time world champion. With the old guard of Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg – and the recent arrivals of Kevin Magnussen at Mclaren and Daniil Kvyat at Toro Rosso, it seems as if Hulkenberg is further disappearing off the radar for the top teams. An occassional mention is made when talk of Raikkonen hanging up his boots at the end of 2015 is discussed but even more so of Bianchi being the replacement. Through no fault of his own, Hulkenberg has only ever side stepped in his F1 career, each year being rescued by a midfield team from having no drive at all.
As a driver with so much potential, it’s shocking that so many teams have let a future champion slip through their fingers and that nearly every year we’ve nearly lost him from the series all together. It’s sad to say but Hulkenberg is a victim of modern day F1 and with no sign of the global economic climate changing any time soon, it won’t be easy for him to break through the barrier of academies and pay drivers. I think I speak for a majority, if not all of us, when I say: get the guy a front running car!
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