AT&T Williams F1

Nico Hulkenberg

Zandvoort, Holland, October 1 2006. The second A1 Grand Prix series – motorsport’s World Cup of Nations – has just commenced. The 23-strong field contains some seasoned campaigners, one or two of them with Formula One experience, but the headlines are stolen by a little-known 19-year-old German.

He has only two seasons of car racing under his belt and is unaccustomed to serious power, but he acclimatises swiftly to his new, 600bhp environment, finishing fourth in the opening race and winning the second. His name? Nico Hülkenberg.

During the course of that campaign Hülkenberg went on to win nine races and finished well clear of his adversaries in the title chase, but while success alerted the wider world to his potential, it also had unforeseen drawbacks.

Hülkenberg began his career at the age of 10, in 1997, when he took up karting. It wasn’t long before he began winning races and during the early 2000s he clinched championships at home and abroad. He won Germany’s national karting title in 2003 and switched to cars two years later, dominating the national Formula BMW series at his first attempt. From there he was fast-tracked to German Formula Three, where he qualified on pole position on his debut – although it took him four attempts to notch his first win. He ended the season fifth in the championship and landed a plum drive with the ASM team for the following year’s F3 Euroseries, first he was committed to A1 GP.

“It was obviously good for me to win that series,” he says, “but it probably didn’t help my F3 programme because I got used to driving big, powerful cars and it took me a while to reacclimatise. That probably explains why my first season in Europe did not go quite as well as expected.”

Where A1 GP had required suppression of brute force, F3 is all about precision and preservation of momentum. Although Nico was quick throughout 2007, it was only during the second half of the season that he began winning regularly and moved up to third in the final standings, behind future F1 racers Romain Grosjean and Sébastien Buemi. At the end of the season, Williams gave him an F1 test opportunity at Jerez, Spain, and he created such a favourable impression that he was subsequently hired as the team’s test and reserve driver.

Hülkenberg remained in the F3 Euroseries for 2008 (with the same team, although it had been renamed ART) and scored seven wins en route to securing the title. That was the springboard to a place in ART’s GP2 Series team for 2009 – and he warmed up with a handful of GP2 Asia appearances during the winter. He won the series’ first floodlit race, in Qatar, and finished sixth in the championship… even though he took part in only four of the 11 races.

His subsequent GP2 campaign began strongly. Although he had to wait until the middle of the season to record his first win – a memorable double success on home soil at the Nürburgring – he subsequently became the category’s most potent force. A blend of speed and unerring consistency yielded another three victories and he clinched the title with two races to spare, maintaining his record of winning championships at every level he has contested. After two years on standby duty for Williams, he was duly promoted to the frontline.

“I feel very comfortable here,” he says. “I have been given a very warm welcome whenever I visit the team and I already have a very good relationship with Frank Williams and Patrick Head. There was a really good atmosphere within the factory during the winter, because I could sense everyone’s motivation – there is a fantastic determination
to win.”

A meeting of like minds, then.

Nico At A Glance
Date of Birth: 19 August 1987
Place of Birth: Emmerich, Germany
Nationality: German
Place of Residence: Germany
Status:    Girlfriend
Height:   1.85m
Weight:   74kg
Website: www.nico-huelkenberg.de

Career Highlights: