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Nico Hulkenberg's Underdog Story Is Exactly What F1 Needed
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Fifteen years, 239 lights out, and 42 retirements into his career, Nico Hulkenberg is a Formula 1 podium finisher.
As sheets of rain coated the track surface and sprayed visors, the 37-year-old Kick Sauber driver managed to hold onto a third-place position at Sunday's 2025 British Grand Prix. And while the result obviously matters, it's how he scored it that is just as important. Getty/Anadolu
If you had told Hulkenberg on Friday that he would be standing on a podium step listening to 'God Save the King' in two days' time, he probably would have laughed. He finished 17th in the second free practice session and 15th in the third. The team's junior driver, Paul Aron, stood in for Hulkenberg in FP1, meaning shortened track time for the No. 27 driver. Saturday's qualifying session didn't bode any better with him saying, 'Quite frankly, we just didn't have the pace to make it through.' Hulkenberg lined up in the 19th grid slot come Sunday's main event; last as Franco Colapinto's Alpine never left the pit lane.
But in a rapid recovery drive in the wet, the German driver managed to crawl his way to the top of the leaderboard.
By lap seven—after a handful of cars gave up their starting positions in favor of exchanging intermediate tires for slicks on a drying track and a series of rookies slid and crashed—Hulkenberg had secured 10th. That finishing position alone would have been one of his better races of the 2024 season. But he didn't stop there. As the skies opened and lap 14 brought out the safety car, a flash of neon green could be seen near the front of the field in fifth. Max Verstappen's spin on lap 21 allowed for Hulkenberg to clinch fourth, and 14 laps around the track later, he successfully picked off Lance Stroll to take third in a clean lunge forward. He managed to keep Lewis Hamilton, who was aiming to turn 15 Silverstone podiums into 16, and Verstappen at bay in fourth and fifth. Getty
Going into the 2025 British Grand Prix weekend, there were clear podium contenders: It was a Ferrari vs. McLaren duel, with a slight chance of Mercedes entering the mix. Hamilton snatched the top spot in the first free practice session of the weekend, his teammate Leclerc went fastest in FP3, and Lando Norris, who won the race, slipped ahead to take FP2. Even as Verstappen's Red Bull showed the unpredictable was possible after a pearl-clutching qualifying lap placed him comfortably on pole, a splash of chartreuse up front wasn't in the cards.
While Hulkenberg's race involved a whole lot of luck, it was his patience that paid off, paired with a certain brand of scrappy racing resilience. It was the kind of back-of-the-pack turned podium performance that, like any good underdog story, reminds fans why they fell in love with racing in the first place. Sometimes it's really easy not to be romantic about racing, especially in eras where teams with massive talent pools and budgets dominate the competition. Halfway through the season, weekends can often feel like a drag of laps that blur together into one string of speed. But other times, you sit back, slack-jawed, and ask: 'How can you not be romantic about 20 cars driving in odd shapes?'
Sunday was one of those days. Despite a title battle, this season hasn't provided too many starry-eyed moments. A 37-year-old racing driver in an inferior car holding up a third-place trophy is enough to get the waterworks going—even if that trophy is made of Lego bricks. Getty/MI News
Although entering the sport through a traditional route, he's had a not-so-traditional career while in the motorsport series: competing for eight teams since 2010, snagging pole position in his rookie year, and winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans driving for Porsche in 2015. Despite proving himself as a racer's racer, Hulkenberg holds some of the less-than-desirable stats in the sport, including the second-most points without a win and the most starts without a win. But he's also shown serious pace this season. He's scored more points (31) than both Red Bulls (29) in the last four races.
Hulkenberg pulled out a cinematic moment that rivaled the F1: The Movie storyline and might just prove to movie-turned-grand prix converts that the sport is also capable of tiny, magical moments. Waiting 15 years for those moments—or seeing a recovery drive in the wet once a season—only makes them that much sweeter.
Hulkenberg, exhausted and smiling, summed it up nicely: 'One of the best days of my career.'
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