As six rookies prepare for their first full season in Formula 1, Tom Coronel has asked what is Nico Hulkenberg “still doing there” in Formula 1.

From Williams to Force India to Renault and more recently Haas, Hulkenberg has spent 11 years on the Formula 1 grid and three years on the sidelines with super sub appearances in the latter two for Aston Martin.

‘I mean what is Nico Hulkenberg still doing there?’

All in all, he has recorded 227 Grand Prix starts, one pole position, two fastest laps, and 571 World Championship points.

But in the podiums and victories column he’s sitting on zero, the German holding the record for the most Grand Prix starts without a top-three finish.

Hulkenberg said of that record: “Whilst not having the podium, I think if I would be so bad I would’ve not managed to stick around [for] 200 Grands Prix – so, there must be some good in there too somewhere.”

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This season the 37-year-old will race for his sixth different team when he lines up on the grid for Sauber having been signed to a multi-year agreement to lead the team into the new-for-2026 Audi era.

One of the elder statesmen in Formula 1, this year Hulkenberg will be up against a rookie team-mate in Gabriel Bortoleto with the Brazilian just one of six drivers contesting his first full season in the sport.

The list includes Kimi Antonelli for Mercedes, Oliver Bearman for Haas, Liam Lawson for Red Bull, Isack Hadjar for Racing Bulls and Alpine’s Jack Doohan.

Dutch racing driver Coronel is excited to see so many young drivers coming into Formula 1, especially as last year there wasn’t one rookie at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

Three rookies did eventually compete in multiple Grands Prix with Bearman driving for Ferrari and Haas, Franco Colapinto joining Williams, and Lawson putting in a late-season audition for Racing Bulls.

With all three doing well, Coronel is even more perplexed that Hulkenberg’s name is on the F1 2025 entry list.

“Well I think it’s cool, I think it’s brave that they’re doing it. I am for the youth and I always have been,” he told Motorsport.com of the teams backing rookies this season.

“I love new talent and look at last year when we talk about Jeddah, then of course we are only talking about one and that is Bearman who was allowed to stand in for [Carlos] Sainz for that appendicitis.

“It is about innovation. Last year, zero, nothing at all. Zero. Of course we have seen new people come because it had to be but at the start of the season, there are new drivers? No.

“Is there a new story? No. When I look at Formula 2, Formula 3, look at Formula 4 and that whole ladder there, I really see talents.

“I just think it is a shame that they do not get a chance. They only get a chance when someone else quits.

“I mean what is Hulkenberg still doing there? Of course Magnussen has left.”

Hulkenberg’s biggest near-miss in Formula 1 was at the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Showing good pace at a wet Interlagos circuit, the German opted to stay out on dry tyres when the field headed into the pit lane and steadily reeled in race leader Jenson Button. He overtook the McLaren driver and was 50s up the road with the Briton when the Safety Car bunched up the field.

Hulkenberg lost the lead to Lewis Hamilton on the restart and, as he tried to retake the then-McLaren driver, they crashed at the first corner. Hulkenberg was given a drive-through penalty but still managed to finish P5.

He admitted years later that it was still a difficult race to watch.

“Ironically last week I was watching on Sky classic races, and I tuned in and it was that race,” Hulkenberg said a decade on from Brazil. “I’m leading and I watch it all over again and my heart was bleeding.

“Yeah, that was the day… I mean before the Safety Car I was leading by 50 seconds. So that was a special race, a special day, a very young Hulk. That was one special drives for the history books.”

Asked if he felt like a victory in Brazil could have changed the shape of his career, Hulkenberg replied: “Maybe, possibly. It’s always difficult to tell what would’ve happened in that situation. I don’t know.”

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