Biography

Nicolas Hülkenberg (German pronunciation: [ˈniːko ˈhʏlkənbɛɐ̯k], born 19 August 1987) is a German racing driver who drives for the Haas F1 Team in Formula One. He was the 2009 GP2 Series champion, and is a previous champion of both the Formula 3 Euro Series and A1 Grand Prix, as part of A1 Team Germany. He is one of six drivers since 2005 to win the GP2 Series/Formula 2 championship in his debut season, the others being Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, Charles Leclerc, George Russell, and Oscar Piastri. Outside of Formula One, he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2015 on his first attempt and also contested two rounds of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship season for Porsche.

Hülkenberg graduated to Formula One in 2010 with the Williams team. Despite claiming the first pole position for Williams in more than five years, he was not retained for 2011 and joined Force India as a test and reserve driver, being promoted to a race seat with the team for the 2012 season. In 2013 he drove for the Sauber team, but returned to Force India for the 2014 season. In October 2016, it was confirmed that he would switch to Renault for 2017. He was replaced by Esteban Ocon for the 2020 Formula One season and left without a seat, in turn joining Racing Point as a reserve driver. In 2020, he drove for Racing Point in three races, following positive COVID tests for both Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez. He then would drive again in place of Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin at the first two races of the 2022 season, following Vettel's positive COVID test. He returned as a full-time driver for the 2023 season, driving for Haas F1 Team.

As of September 2023, Hülkenberg holds the record for the most Formula One career starts without a podium finish, a record he broke when he failed to finish in his 129th race (the 2017 Singapore Grand Prix) and in so doing passed Adrian Sutil's previous record of 128; the record currently stands at 203 Grands Prix.