Nico Hulkenberg and a History of Mistakes.
- Richard Baxter
- Aug 1, 2019
- 2 min read
Nico Hulkenberg is a name that is often linked with a drive in the top Formula 1 teams. He has proven many times how good a driver he is and has been in the sport for a long time now. However, despite some brilliant performances, and the odd pole position, he has yet to score a single podium in his F1 career.
Last week’s German Grand Prix was the latest moment where just as he gets in to a good position and looks like he could finally get that podium, he made a mistake and retired from the race. Suffering the same incident that Leclerc and Hamilton had, he slid across the drag strip area and hit the barrier.
This latest retirement in Germany is just the latest in a series of costly mistakes.
One example is looking back to the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. In a crazy race Hulkenberg was running in a strong sixth position and looked like he had good pace. Then, turning in to a right hand corner, he hit his front right wheel against the inside wall, breaking the suspension and retiring from the race. With all that happened with Vettel and Hamilton dropping down the field amongst other retirements that could’ve been Hulkenberg’s moment. But that silly mistake cost him. It really was quite an amateurish mistake to make.
Another example was the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix. Hulkenberg, then driving for the Force India team took advantage of the conditions and was actually battling for a race victory with the McLarens of Button and Hamilton. Whilst trying to overtake Hamilton in to turn 1 they collided, forcing Hamilton to retire, with Hulkenberg picking up a penalty and dropping down to finish 5th.
Again, without this single error he could’ve achieved that long awaited podium and possibly race victory.
I don’t want to sound too harsh on Nico. He is a good driver, and when racing just the slightest thing can force a mistake and result in major consequences. He needs to cut these mistakes out to really show how good he is. It seems just as he gets his sights on a possible podium he bottles it. Surely he can cope with the pressure of being at the front? If he was one of the younger drivers on the grid you could maybe understand it more, but he isn’t. He’s one of the more mature drivers. In my opinion you would expect more from him.
I’m not saying you can’t expect him to make any mistakes; every driver makes errors time to time. But for Hulkenberg you really don’t want to see these errors when there’s such a good opportunity.
You could see how gutted he was retiring from his home German Grand Prix. With the Hungarian Grand Prix up next, he’ll be looking to make amends for his error.
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