When it was announced that Nico Hulkenberg would be taking a spot on the 2023 Formula 1 grid at Haas it raised many an eyebrow and brought detractors in their droves – but the German’s storming drive to a brilliant seventh-place finish in the Australian Grand Prix has gone a long way to silencing any remaining critics that he had.
While criticism was endlessly targeted at America’s sole F1 outfit for electing to field a ‘has been’ at the expense of his up-and-coming young countryman, Mick Schumacher, Hulkenberg has swiftly dispelled any notion that he didn’t warrant a seat in the early stages of his comeback.
Having out-qualified his respected new team-mate Kevin Magnussen at all three rounds in 2023 and simultaneously maintained a flawless streak of starting inside the top 10 places – something Magnussen has failed to do once – Hulkenberg has demonstrated that he has required very little time to dust off the cobwebs and get up to speed.
However, after an opening two rounds where poor luck and an indifferent race package cost him the chance to convert solid starting spots into a haul of points, everything finally came together for Haas and Hulkenberg at the third time of asking in Melbourne.
Unlike in Bahrain, Hulkenberg was able to make a strong enough start to maintain position and avoided the trouble that others were encountering on the revised Albert Park Circuit layout – including escaping unscathed when the Williams of Alex Albon directly ahead of him careered into the barrier at Turn 7 at high speed.
While committing to the right strategy calls has often been a weakness in the Haas ranks in recent years, this time around the strategists at the American team received a slice of luck in being one of the teams that opted not to pit under the Safety Car right before the race was halted by a red flag call.
Although the race pace of the VF-23 deteriorated as the second stint progressed and allowed Lando Norris in the lead McLaren to slip by after an enthralling dice, Hulkenberg, with over 100 grands prix starts to his name, was expertly nursing his worn rubber towards a seemingly comfortable eighth place finish.
However, his team-mate, who had been an anonymous figure all weekend, strangely collided with the wall on the exit of Turn 2, ripping off his right rear tyre and scattering debris all the way on the run to Turn 3; the result another red flag stoppage to spice proceedings up late in the day.
It would have been ironically typical of Hulkenberg’s season to that point if his team-mate’s bizarre ongoings undid the excellent work he had amassed in the sister car. Once more, though, his vast experience shone through to navigate the ensuing chaos as many others lost their heads.
Even at the second standing restart – one that would eventually be declared void and the order restored to how the drivers had lined up previously – Hulkenberg managed to negotiate his way through the carnage untroubled. With Carlos Sainz picking up a five-second time penalty for tagging Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin round at the first corner, Hulkenberg was promoted a further place up the order.
The ex-Renault man would have been staring at an unexpected maiden podium for both him and the Haas team had the race not been interrupted for a third time. Without the careless approach that Pierre Gasly took to re-joining the track after skating wide at Turn 1, concluding with him sending both Alpine cars into the wall, Hulkenberg would have been standing on an F1 podium for the first time at the 187th attempt.
Nevertheless, a strong haul of six World Championship points represented a welcome return for a driver that until that point had yet to sustain a clean Sunday afternoon of racing in 2023.
It shouldn’t be entirely surprising Hulkenberg has been on it straight away, however. Despite only having raced this generation of cars twice in an uncompetitive Aston Martin at the beginning of last season, Hulkenberg showcased his adaptability by managing to out-qualify Lance Stroll in Bahrain.
In addition, his services as a last-minute super sub were required for the Silverstone outfit two years prior to that during a Covid-hit campaign in 2020. Standing in for Sergio Perez the former second-tier champion miraculously put the Racing Point car third on the grid and followed that up a few months later with a drive from the back of the grid to seventh at his home race at the Nürburgring without any practice time.
Proceeding all that came a victory at the prestigious standalone Le Mans 24-hour event in 2015. Unfortunately, that level of success never translated across to F1, despite Hulkenberg seemingly always being destined for race wins and potential Championships as he surged through the junior ladder earlier in his career.
While he unequivocally established himself as a great midfield pedaller across the last decade, the now-35-year-old never received the break his talent richly deserved. Continuous rumours about a switch to Ferrari swirled but a prized seat with the glamorous Italian stable never materialised before ex-team-mate Sergio Perez was handpicked over him to partner Max Verstappen at Red Bull for 2021.
The arrival of Daniel Ricciardo to Renault, now Alpine, as the French manufacturer’s new marquee signing spelt the beginning of the end for his venture in the sport, with Hulkenberg being dropped at the conclusion of 2019 for the vastly younger Esteban Ocon.
Although Ricciardo had the upper hand across their sole year together, Hulkenberg was certainly not disgraced by the race-winning Australian and losing his place was circumspect to him being a casualty in the shift in approach from teams towards ensuring it had on board its own next-generation talent for the future.
The Renault Group’s loss, however, has been Haas’ gain. After an alliance failed to materialise many years earlier, finally team owner Gene Haas and team principal Guenther Steiner got their man. Following a year of running two rookies followed by Schumacher alongside Magnussen, Haas has returned to the driver line-up model it has predominantly fielded during its time in F1: prioritising experience over youth.
When Haas made the decision to dispense with Schumacher – a driver that cost the team $2 million in crash damage last year – it set about only acquiring an experienced and reliable replacement. After several struggling years, Haas admitted it was in a position where it needs drivers to push them in the right direction; individuals who know what they’re doing and are indubitably performing at their peak, not unknown quantities who could turn out to be special but need a lot of nurturing along the way.
Schumacher perhaps was unfairly treated by the team’s senior management, but Haas necessitated a driver that it could count on to repeatedly extract the maximum from the machinery provided to its drivers. As an individual that has been renowned for being one of the greatest barometers for a midfield competing side, Hulkenberg fitted that description perfectly.
The ex-Aston Martin reserve is already showing the vast benefits that his addition has yielded to Haas – something that hasn’t been lost on Steiner, who was swift to praise his new signing’s contribution even before his recent points-scoring heroics.
Even Magnussen has been caught out by Hulkenberg’s fast start and will inevitably have to re-engage after arguably getting too comfortable once he was assured of having the measure of Schumacher. Hulkenberg, meanwhile, has been on it immediately and provided a real test of Magnussen’s credentials, unlike Schumacher who took several rounds to get up to speed with the latest, more cumbersome and lacklustre machinery at the drivers’ disposal from the start of last year.
Having previously been an integral part of Force India and Renault outfits that both peaked with fourth-place finishes in the Championship, Hulkenberg knows precisely how a top midfield entity operates and the level Haas has to strive towards to match that.
With Haas also set to operate at the budget cap for the first time since its introduction in 2021 this year, the Kannapolis-based team should be well-placed to exhibit a more consistent development programme in order to avoid slipping down the order as the season unfolds like previous seasons.
Hulkenberg’s lack of a top-three finish is often scoffed at, but Haas isn’t looking for a driver to accomplish the unlikely feat of a podium; they need a dependable pair of hands who can consistently maximise machinery and hopefully keep the points board ticking over along the way if the car is competitive. In that regard, you would be hard-pressed to find anybody more suitable for slotting into such a role than Hulkenberg.
The German managed to drag an uncompetitive Sauber car practically single-handedly to seventh place in the Constructors’ standings in 2013 before defeating another of the Swiss side’s ex-drivers, Perez, in qualifying and races across three seasons with Force India, despite the Mexican being the one to scoop all four podiums in their time together.
There has never been a merited podium finish to show for Hulkenberg’s midfield exploits, but his surprise pole position in the damp in Brazil in 2010 during his rookie year with Williams was an early foresight of his ability to pull together a stunning result against the odds in wet conditions.
Magnussen managing to accomplish the same feat for Haas at last year’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix while Schumacher wound up last was illustrative of the strength in depth Haas’ current duo retains in a tight midfield scene where drivers can make the difference to a team’s end of season ranking.
Despite doubts over his age and time out, Hulkenberg has immediately shown his value to being on the grid for one of F1’s modern-day perennial midfield runners. Even if that elusive podium never arrives for the popular German, Haas is already evidently reaping the rewards of bringing Hulkenberg back into the sport in the twilight of his career.
