Photo: Sauber Motorsport AG – Silverstone, July 7, 2025
Silverstone, July 7, 2025 — Nico Hülkenberg has long been one of Formula 1’s most curious anomalies: a driver with undeniable skill, over a decade of experience, but a glaring zero in the podium column. That changed on Sunday, in extraordinary fashion. After 239 Grand Prix starts, the 37-year-old finally stood where many believed he always belonged, on the podium.
Fifteen Years of Fighting
Photo by Marco Matthew (marcormatt) / Flickr, taken July 30, 2010
Hülkenberg’s Formula 1 debut came back in 2010. He’s raced in seven different teams, witnessed multiple regulation changes, sat out seasons, returned as a super-sub, and reinvented himself time and again. Yet the top three eluded him, often cruelly so. He narrowly missed out on podiums due to crashes, mechanical failures, and moments of misfortune that became part of his story.
Fans joked that he was cursed. Paddock insiders called him “the best driver never to podium.” But Hülkenberg never stopped showing up. Never stopped racing. And after fifteen seasons, his persistence paid off in the most dramatic way.
Near Misses: The Podiums That Almost Were
Before his breakthrough at Silverstone, Nico Hülkenberg came agonizingly close to a podium finish multiple times throughout his career. One of the most notable near misses was the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix, where he ran in second place before a last-lap tire puncture dropped him out of the points. Similarly, in the 2015 Singapore Grand Prix, Hülkenberg was running comfortably in the top five but retired due to a technical issue while fighting for a podium position.
Other races, such as the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix and the 2018 Brazilian Grand Prix, saw him locked in battles for podium spots, only to be thwarted by collisions or strategic misfortunes. These near podiums contributed to his reputation as “the best driver never to podium,” underscoring just how elusive the achievement was until now.
From 19th to 3rd: The Race of a Lifetime
Starting 19th on the grid, few gave the Kick Sauber driver a shot at points, let alone silverware. But the British Grand Prix was no ordinary race. A soaked Silverstone meant chaos: safety cars, pit strategy gambles, and driver errors everywhere.
Hülkenberg navigated it all with the cool of a veteran and the hunger of a rookie. He was among the first to switch to intermediate tyres, then timed his move to slicks perfectly. While others slid off or tangled in wheel-to-wheel fights, Nico kept it clean and fast. Even after sustaining light damage mid-race, he held firm against faster cars, executing what may be the most impressive drive of his career.
His final laps were a defensive masterclass, keeping Hamilton at bay while the crowd roared. When he crossed the line in third, the pit wall erupted. Fifteen years. Two hundred thirty-nine races. The streak was finally broken.
Kick Sauber’s Breakthrough Moment
Photo credit: Sauber Motorsport AG / Andy Hone / Getty Images, 2025 British Grand Prix, Silverstone, July 6, 2025
The result also marked a huge win for Kick Sauber, a team battling for relevance and identity in a competitive midfield. The upgraded package they brought to Silverstone clearly worked, but more importantly, they had a driver who could extract every drop of potential from it.
Team boss Alessandro Alunni Bravi called it “a victory in spirit,” and praised Hülkenberg’s “masterclass in experience and judgment.” It’s a morale boost the team desperately needed and a performance that could shape their trajectory for the rest of the season.
Legacy, Rewritten
Podiums are often seen as stepping stones. For Nico, this one might be the summit. But what a view it must be from there, earned through sheer longevity, resilience, and belief.
In a sport that often celebrates youth, Hülkenberg’s story is a powerful reminder that persistence still matters. That hard work, even in the face of ridicule and bad luck, can be rewarded. That sometimes, the 239th time really is the charm.
