Silverstone, England – “Hour Comth, Comth the Man.”
Nico hallkenberg Waited for his moment. On Sunday, he finally received it: German scored its first score Sutra 1 Eliminating one of the most infamous and inappropriate records of podium and game.
Sauber boss Jonathan Wheatley stepped into the team’s garage to complete the media duties to get out of the team when he said the words. Behind him, members of the Champagne-Lathpath team broke the mantras of “Nico Ki on Fire” through the walls of the garage.
Saubar did not go to Silverstone expecting a party – the idea of a podium would be attractive to anyone with the passing knowledge of F1. The Swiss team did not end in the top three since the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix. In 2026, in the midst of an infection for Audi ahead of a full rebrand, Sauber finally ended dead in the Constractors Championships last year without scoring the same point. The team had so little champagne in its fridge that Mercedes and Eston Martin brought additional bottles to celebrate properly.
While Sauber had forgotten what felt like this, Hulcanberg could be forgiven to think that he could never find it to feel it.
His first F1 podium came in the 239th attempt, 15 years after his start in the 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix. The person who was known for so long, the “most raced man begins without a podium for his name” flipped his legacy in a surprising afternoon when the team and the driver fully combined to snatch the results. The real surprise Formula 1 has a rareness, but it was as good as you could ever find.
“It’s a long time coming, it’s not,” a shocked Holkenberg said immediately after the race. “But I always knew that we have it, I have it, somewhere.”
Not everyone agrees.
German driver’s failure to score a podium also – with many big opportunities, such as Brazil 2012 or Germany 2019, such as a stick critics defeated him for years. Most of the Padock found difficult that how a driver as a driver may be good as Hallcainberg may be a punching bag.
Pre-Red Bull Sporting Director Wheatley became the boss of Hallconberg only on 1 April, but like many people in Padock, they have been confident for longer about their driver’s talent.
“It seems incredible to me that we are all celebrating a podium, as I think he feels as if he should have made him his whole career,” said wheatley. “It seems to be the longest promised podium ever. He showed his class today, did not wrong a wheel. I have considered them an extraordinary talent for a very long time, and I think I have been consistent in saying that for everyone here. It seemed incredible for me that he has never achieved a podium in his career. I think what he has made today.”
The previous futile of Hülkenberg in that department was difficult for fathom.
Every game has its statistical outlair, the athletes that did not achieve anything they could or should have done. In Formula 1, the position of a pole is probably the first achievement of any value – Hallcanberg was one of them in his crook season, in the 2010 Brazilian Grand Prix, a performance that appeared to promote mass with its early racing career – but in the context of the results of the race, the podium is a bare minimum for any real importance. The Grand Prix wins follows for great drivers. A World Championship for some elite talents. Many good drivers either retire later without retiring.
Even the most famous “almost men” of Formula 1, otherwise claimed an impressive resume. In fact, some are remembered by them because of Mrs. Sterling Moss, often described as the greatest driver, never won the world title, claiming the 16 race victory. Rubens Barichelo took 68 podiums but never championship. Nick Hydefeld managed 13 podiums without standing on the top step. They all hit at least one milestone.
Hülkenberg, somehow, was not. until Sunday. It was a shocking discrepancy. There was a driver who was quite good to start more than 200 races in 15 sessions to win 24 hours of Le Mans (one of the final awards of Motorsport) in his first and only effort in 2015.
He was some of the phenomers in the junior categories. In carting, Hulcanberg regularly defeated another young German of the same age: Sebastian Vetail, who would proceed to win four world championships.
On the arrival of Formula 1 with Williams, Hulcanberg was considered one of the coming men of motor racing; He dominated the Formula BMW in 2005, won the short-term A1 GP Championship, and then in 2009 took a comprehensive title in GP 2-Ab Formula 2-in Formula 2-. He referred to his initial success at the news conference for the top three finishers on Sunday evening.
Asked how it felt on the podium again after so long, he said: “I still remembered how to do it! It used to do a lot in junior goods and then had to wait a long time for it.”
Nobody in Padock never doubted Hallcanberg’s talent. Their long wait for a podium was not just cruel, it surprised those who used to run with them. Reign Max Verustapane At the conclusion of the race, along with passing Saubar, he was seen pumping his fist at the festival in Hallkenburg. The red bull driver, a good friend from Hulcanberg, was in a hurry to tell how much it was.
Those who shared a car with him knew what he was able to do.
“For me, he has always been a top-five driver when he is in F1 every time,” said the former Renault team partner. Carlos Sainz“The execution of their race is incredible. I am happy that they have this podium to close everyone. I never doubted him.”
Two -time world champion Fernando AlonsoNo stranger for the importance of competitive machinery in defining the success of Formula 1 career, said: “He is one of the best drivers on the grid, with never an opportunity to have a proper car under it.”
Perhaps the only person who would not have been completely thrilled with the big moment of Hulcanberg on Sunday, was Adrian Sutil, now inherited records for the most F1 race, which begins without a podium. Number next to Sutil’s name: 128. Hulcanberg had 292. A difference is so spacious that it outlines how absurd it was that he had to wait for so long.
Machinery Point Alonso was the worst part of Hallcainberg’s story – chips never felt to fall in the right place. After Williams, he raced for the Minanose Force India and may have won the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix – or scored a very few podiums – did he not hit Lewis Hamilton In the last part of the race. In 2013, his standout performance for an ineffective saffron changed his head into Padock. He was seriously considered as a replacement of the Felip Wart in Ferrari, only to be passed in favor of returning the world champion Kimi Ricaconen – a sliding door moment if one was once one.
Force India boss Vijay Mallya brought back Hulkenberg with Sergio Perez in 2014, but that partnership only deepened disappointment. During its time, the Force India made four podiums – each of each paraze. The most painful Monaco was 2016; The pits closed at a bad time, Hallkenberg stuck in traffic, while Perez jumped forward and finished third.
A step for Renault, an organization with the ambitions of the world title, thereafter, but the team never came close to achieving those goals. Another painful moment came here. If Brazil 2012 was one that went away, Germany 2019 was not far behind. In the rains in Hokenhem, Hallconberg was running from the front when he exited the circuit and got out of the race. “It hurts and it is even more hurt yesterday,” he said after that race. The worst was that, until then, he already held records for the most onset without a podium. Why did that moment appear briefly.
This moment was also the background of one of my most uncomfortable moments as a journalist. Four days later, on Media Day for the next race in Budapest, I asked him directly whether this unwanted record was played in his mind when he found himself in strong positions. He got nervous towards me.
“Does it weigh heavily on you?” He came back. I reminded that we were talking about him. He kept staring, hung an painful silence in the air, which looked like eternity, as if this question was also hate. The response understood. He was ill with the story. But the reason for this was that it was often asked properly because it was very clearly quite good. Introduced into the record and no one associated with this game understood.
Even on Friday ahead of this British Grand Prix, a fellow journalist interviewed Hulkenberg and asked him if his record-breaking utility has still harassed him. Hülkenberg, so far with a different perspective as a father and a person was enjoying his second term in Formula 1 after a brief mantra in 2020, 2021 and 2022, closing it off.
“It is like a cold cup of coffee,” he took a pinch.
Hülkenberg never had to listen to that question again. Looking at the recent form of Saubar – the team has excluded Red Bull in the last four races and ranks sixth in the championship – and the growing discussion around the conversion in Audi in 2026, the day of the festive day can start.
