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Nico Hülkenberg
Formula One World Championship career
Hülkenberg at the 2011 Spanish Grand Prix
Born	(1987-08-19) 19 August 1987 (age 37) Emmerich am Rhein, Germany
Nationality	German
Entries	21
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	24
Pole positions	1
Fastest laps	0
First entry	2010 Bahrain Grand Prix
Last entry	2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
2010 position	14th (22 points)

Nicolas "Nico" Hülkenberg (born 19 August 1987 in Emmerich am Rhein, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany) is a German professional racing driver. He was the 2009 champion of the GP2 Series, 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 three drivers since 2005 to win the GP2 series championship in his debut season, the others being Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

Hülkenberg raced in Formula One in 2010 with the Williams team. Despite winning the first pole position for Williams in over 5 years he was not retained for 2011, and joined Force India as a test and reserve driver. He was promoted to a race seat with the team for the 2012 season, joining Paul di Resta.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 3 Euro Series 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 from 18th on the grid, he won again in the rain at Zandvoort and added a third at the Nürburgring. 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.

He won the (non-championship) Masters of Formula 3 race at Zolder from team mate (and F3 Euro Series championship leader) Romain Grosjean after the Swiss stalled at the start.

Hülkenberg won the Formula 3 Euro Series 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. He finished both races in fourth place and this left him in seventh place in the championship. His second race weekend in Qatar, saw him become the first night race pole-sitter, and promptly turned that into becoming the first race-winner under lights after a dominant performance. Such was his performance that he ended up over thirteen seconds clear of second-placed driver Sergio Pérez. He finished third in the sprint race, taking his championship points tally to 27 from just four races. Despite this, he finished sixth in the championship.

Hülkenberg continued with ART into the 2009 GP2 Series season (partnering Pastor Maldonado), 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. Worthy of note is that Hülkenberg ended the season 64 points clear of his team mate Pastor Maldonado, who would later go on to get his Williams race seat for the 2011 F1 season.

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 Williams 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 Williams team and secured himself a test driver seat in the team for 2008. In late 2008, Williams offered Hülkenberg to continue his testing contract for the 2009 F1 season.

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 Williams in 2010. Hülkenberg's team-mate for his first season would be the experienced driver Rubens Barrichello, who moved from Brawn GP which in turn was bought out by Mercedes-Benz.

Hülkenberg made his debut at the 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. He was tenth again at Silverstone, and at the Hungarian Grand Prix he finished sixth, a career best. He also picked up points finishes in Italy, Singapore, and Korea. At the Japanese Grand Prix, Renault driver Vitaly Petrov misjudged a move at the start and cut across Hülkenberg's nose thus taking them both out of the race. Towards the end of the season there were reports that he could lose his seat at Williams to the GP2 Series champion Pastor Maldonado due to the money Maldonado could bring to the team. Force India's Adrian Sutil was also linked to replace Hülkenberg at Williams.

On 6 November he gained his first Formula One pole position, by 1.049 seconds over Sebastian Vettel at the Brazilian Grand Prix. This was the Williams team's first pole position since the 2005 European Grand Prix. Hülkenberg completed a final lap after pole position was already secured, increasing his gap to the rest of the field. After losing the lead on the opening lap, he eventually finished the race in eighth place.

After the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, team boss Frank Williams confirmed that Hülkenberg would not be driving for the team in 2011.

Force India (2011–)

On 26 January 2011, Hülkenberg was confirmed as Force India's reserve driver for the 2011 season, where he would drive for the team in the Friday practice sessions. He has replaced Paul di Resta, who has moved up to race for the team. He replaced di Resta for the first practice sessions of all the races apart from Monaco and Hungary, where he replaced Adrian Sutil.

On 16 December 2011, Force India announced di Resta and Hülkenberg would be their drivers for the 2012 season.