Nico Hülkenberg

Nico Hülkenberg

Template:Country flagicon German
Formula One World Championship Career
Active years	not applicable
Team(s)	not applicable
Grands Prix	8
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podium finishes	0
Career Points	1
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First Grand Prix	2010 Bahrain Grand Prix
First win
Last win
Last Grand Prix	2010 British Grand Prix

Nicolas "Nico" Hülkenberg (born 19 August 1987 in Emmerich am Rhein, West Germany) is a German professional racing driver, racing in Formula One for Williams. He is the incumbent champion of the GP2 Series, and is a previous champion of both the Formula Three Euroseries and A1 Grand Prix, as part of A1 Team Germany. He has the distinction of being only the second driver after Lewis Hamilton to win the GP2 series championship in his maiden season.

Career

Early Career

Hülkenberg made his karting debut in 1997, at the age of 10. In 2002 he was German Junior Karting Champion and the following year he won the German Kart Championship.<ref name="meethulkenberg"> Template:Citation/core{{#if:|}}</ref>

Hülkenberg is currently managed by Willi Weber, the long-time manager of Michael Schumacher. Weber has gone on record saying that Hülkenberg would be ready for Formula One by 2008. He has also praised Hülkenberg as an "unbelievable talent" and says he reminds him of Schumacher as a young driver. He also stated that he nicknamed him "The Hulk", after the fictional superhero, in reference to Hülkenberg changing his personality whilst at the wheel. <ref name = "hulkenberg-weber">Template:Citation/core{{#if:|}}</ref>

Formula BMW (2005)

2005 saw his debut in German Formula BMW. His first season was a very successful one, with Hülkenberg dominating the championship and winning the title comfortably. He finished first in the Formula BMW world final but was stripped of the win after it was claimed he had brake-tested his rivals during a safety car period.<ref name="meethulkenberg" />

A1 Grand Prix (2006–07)

He also joined the German A1 Grand Prix team for the 2006–07 season. Nine wins in his rookie season made him the most successful driver in A1GP history. It meant he almost single-handedly won Germany the championship with 128 points, 35 more than Team New Zealand.<ref name="meethulkenberg" />

Formula Three (2006–08)

Hülkenberg finished fifth in the German Formula Three Championship (ATS Formel 3 Cup) in 2006. For 2007 he switched to the Formula Three Euroseries with the ASM team that had taken Lewis Hamilton and Paul di Resta to the last two championships. His first win came at the Norisring<ref name="meethulkenberg" /> from 18th on the grid, he won again in the rain at Zandvoort<ref name="mmhulkzandvoort"> Template:Citation/core{{#if:|}}</ref> and added a third at the Nürburgring.<ref name="mmhulknurburgring"> Template:Citation/core{{#if:|}}</ref> But he ran into trouble at Magny-Cours, being penalised in qualifying for passing the chequered flag twice, and crashing into Filip Salaquarda in the race.<ref name="meethulkenberg" />

He won the (non-championship) Masters of Formula 3 race at Zolder from team mate (and F3 Euroseries championship leader) Romain Grosjean after the Swiss stalled at the start.<ref name="mmhulkmasters"> Template:Citation/core{{#if:|}}</ref>

Hülkenberg won the Formula Three Euroseries championship in 2008. Almost unbeatable on a Saturday, Hülkenberg amassed 76 of his total of 85 points during the feature races run that day, taking seven wins in the progress.

GP2 Series (2009)

He made his GP2 Asia Series début for the ART Grand Prix team at the third round of the 2008–09 GP2 Asia Series season in Bahrain, where he took pole position at his first attempt.<ref>{{#if: Hulkenberg takes pole on GP2 debut

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Hülkenberg continued with ART into the 2009 GP2 Series season, and took his first win in dominant fashion, during his home round of the series at the Nürburgring. With the series' top eight inverted grid, Hülkenberg started eighth for the sprint race. He won the sprint race as well, becoming the first driver to do the weekend double since Giorgio Pantano at Monza in the 2006 season. In doing so, he became only the second driver to complete the clean sweep, with pole position, two fastest laps and two wins; equalling the achievements of Nelson Piquet, Jr., who achieved it at the Hungaroring, also in 2006. Hülkenberg clinched the title with two races to spare, after a third place finish in the Monza sprint race, shadowing Brazilians Luiz Razia and Lucas di Grassi home. The result left him with an unassailable 22-point lead heading to the final round, and in the process becoming the first driver to clinch the championship without the need for a final round decider. A fifth win followed at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, allowing the German to break the 100-point barrier, and eventually won the title by 25 points from Vitaly Petrov.

Formula One

Hülkenberg completed a Formula One test in 2007. Willi Weber confirmed that he was in contact with Renault boss Flavio Briatore about organising a first F1 test for the young German, but he finally got his chance to test for an F1 team on 4 December 2007; when he was given a seat by WilliamsF1 at Jerez. The two-day test went well, outpacing official driver Kazuki Nakajima on the first day, and only 0.4 seconds slower than Nico Rosberg. His flawless performance in the test impressed the WilliamsF1 team and secured himself a test driver seat in the team for 2008.<ref name = "Williams sign Hulkenberg as test driver"> Template:Citation/core{{#if:|}}</ref> In late 2008, Williams offered Hülkenberg to continue his testing contract for the 2009 F1 season.<ref>http://www.itv-f1.com/news_article.aspx?id=45164</ref>

Hülkenberg's manager Willi Weber has stated that he wants Scuderia Ferrari to sign Hülkenberg in three years time. Hülkenberg was linked to the vacant seat at Ferrari after Luca Badoer's unimpressive performances during the 2009 European and Belgian Grands Prix after filling in for the injured Felipe Massa but Ferrari chose Giancarlo Fisichella.

Williams (2010)

On 2 November 2009, Hülkenberg was confirmed to race for WilliamsF1 in 2010.<ref>{{#if: 2010 Driver Lineup

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Hülkenberg made his debut at the 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix, recovering from an early spin to finish in fourteenth position. At the second round in Australia, he was involved in a first-lap incident with Kamui Kobayashi, after the Japanese driver's front wing failed and sent him into the barrier, rebounding into the path of Hülkenberg. At the third round in Malaysia, Hülkenberg made it to Q3 for the first time, qualifying in fifth place; out-qualifying team-mate Barrichello for the first time. Hülkenberg looked set to finish eleventh in the race until Fernando Alonso blew his engine three laps from the end, thus promoting Hülkenberg to tenth place and with the new-for-2010 points system, Hülkenberg along with Jaime Alguersuari scored their first points in Formula One.

Racing record