The 16-year veteran driver is no stranger to challenging conditions, but he's now looking down the barrel of an underperforming car without enough data.
With 16 years of experience in Formula 1, Nico Hulkenberg is no stranger to challenging conditions, but his first year with Audi is currently contesting its maiden year in F1, and it's lagging behind the competition in perhaps the most important metric: data collection.
Nico Hulkenberg is the particularly unfortunate bearer of two of Formula 1's least prestigious titles. Despite his undeniable talents as a driver, Hulkenberg holds the record for the most race starts without a win at 253—we're still pulling for him to get that first one—and the most race starts before achieving his first podium at 239. You'd never know it by speaking with him.
Only through Hulkenberg's sheer strength of will and his outlook on life could he manage to find that first podium with a third-place finish at the 2025 British Grand Prix. We recently sat down with Hulkenberg ahead of the Miami Grand Prix for a wide-ranging discussion that covered everything from F1's new regulations—which you canWhen asked about how he balances staying positive while also being honest about any frustrations with the state of the car, Hulkenberg pointed out that he doesn't think in those terms.
"I don't see it that way," the 38-year-old driver said. "I mean, come on. There's 22 of us that get to do this. This is one of the best gigs in the world.
" Formula 1, especially in its current form, is a sport that hinges on data. The largest teams employ hundreds of engineers to comb through data, with the most valuable info coming from time on track. Unfortunately, for both Audi and Hulkenberg in particular, that's the team's biggest hurdle right now. Hulkenberg started the year with a DNS in Australia before achieving back-to-back 11th-place finishes in China and Japan.
Disastrously, he completed just a handful of laps in the Miami Grand Prix, losing out on potential points, but also losing out on a key data-collection opportunity for the team. , his outlook was more positive ahead of the race.
"I think it's about relearning. You have to adapt, to adjust yourself, and now, when things are still quite new , there's a very steep learning curve for us, but also for everyone else," he said.
"But I kind of enjoy that side. To work with the engineers, with the team, to find the little edge. We obviously missed the first race with our problems, and then we've been 11th twice and haven't fully optimized things yet, but especially on the power-unit side, where we started from zero a few years ago, it's already quite impressive to me what they have done and how competitive we are.
" "I'm very optimistic and hopeful, and, for me, it's great to be part of this story with this great German brand," Hulkenberg said at the end of our conversation. After a brief stint as a detailer for a local dealership group in college, he knew he needed a more permanent way to drive all the new cars he couldn’t afford and decided to pursue a career in auto writing.
By hounding his college professors at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he was able to travel Wisconsin seeking out stories in the auto world before landing his dream job at
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