Nico Hulkenburg- How Does He Stand Up Against His Team-mates?

Posted on By luke

Nico Hulkenburg is a driver that has somewhat divided fans. Some think he is a good, consistent point scorer but not a driver of world championship material whereas some fans believe he could become, or currently is, world championship material and that the only thing preventing him is the lack of a chance in a top team. Whilst the fact he hasn’t been given a chance at a top team is true, he is now at a team (Renault) in which you’d think and expect has championship potential in the next few years and post-2020 for when the much anticipated rule changes come into effect. If Renault do become championship challengers then one of the two camps of thought will be proven right. On top of this Danial Ricciardo, a proven race winner and top class driver, has joined Hulkenburg at Renault. It’s a certainty then that Hulkenburg will be watched and compared to the machinery underneath him and to the team-mate next to him.

For the meanwhile however we can only judge Hulkenburg by his past performances, the cars he raced and the team-mates he raced against and this is what this piece aims to do. In this piece we will take each of Hulkenburg’s 8 seasons in Formula One and look at the head-to-head records in the qualifyings and the races of Hulkenburg and his respective team-mate as well as their points totals, their best finishes and their position in the championship after the seasons completion. The race head-to-heads will have another statistic next to it which represents their records for when both drivers finished the race, which will be shown in bold (This isn’t counted for the qualifying head-to-heads as the chances of one driver having lots of problems in which it would make a significant difference on the original head-to-head records are slim as qualifying isn’t really taxing on reliability. On top of this races speak about the drivers talent more than qualifying alone does). At the end of the piece there will be an overall race and qualifying head-to-head record. Line graphs will be used to show how each of Hulkenburg’s and his respective team-mates seasons progressed.

 

2010: Team-mate= Rubens Barrichello

  • Points- Hulkenburg= 22, Barrichello= 47
  • Championship Position- Hulkenburg= 14th, Barrichello= 10th
  • Qualifying Head-To-Head- 13-6 (Barrichello)
  • Racing Head-To-Head- 13-6 (Barrichello) 9-5 (Barrichello)
  • Best Race Result- Hulkenburg= 6th, Barrichello= 4th

 

2012: Team-mate= Paul di Resta

  • Points- Hulkenburg= 63, di Resta= 46
  • Championship Position- Hulkenburg= 11th, di Resta= 14th
  • Qualifying Head-To-Head- 12-8 (Hulkenburg)
  • Racing Head-To-Head- 12-8 (Hulkenburg) 10-6 (Hulkenburg)
  • Best Race Result- Hulkenburg= 4th, di Resta= 4th

 

2013: Team-mate= Esteban Gutierrez

  • Points- Hulkenburg= 51, Gutierrez= 6
  • Championship Position- Hulkenburg= 10th, Gutierrez= 16th
  • Qualifying Head-To-Head- 18-1 (Hulkenburg)
  • Racing Head-To-Head- 14-5 (Hulkenburg) 12-2 (Hulkenburg)
  • Best Race Result- Hulkenburg= 4th, Gutierrez= 7th

 

2014: Team-mate= Sergio Perez

  • Points- Hulkenburg= 96, Perez= 59
  • Championship Position- Hulkenburg= 9th, Perez= 10th
  • Qualifying Head-To-Head- 12-7 (Hulkenburg)
  • Racing Head-To-Head- 11-8 (Hulkenburg) 7-7
  • Best Race Result- Hulkenburg= 5th (x4), Perez= 3rd

 

2015: Team-mate= Sergio Perez

  • Points- Hulkenburg= 58, Perez= 78
  • Championship Position- Hulkenburg= 10th, Perez= 9th
  • Qualifying Head-To-Head- 11-8 (Hulkenburg)
  • Racing Head-To-Head- 12-7 (Perez) 7-6 (Hulkenburg)
  • Best Race Result- Hulkenburg= 6th (x3), Perez= 3rd

 

2016: Team-mate= Sergio Perez

  • Points- Hulkenburg= 72, Perez= 101
  • Championship Position- Hulkenburg= 9th, Perez= 7th
  • Qualifying Head-To-Head- 12-9 (Hulkenburg)
  • Racing Head-To-Head- 13-8 (Perez) 9-7 (Perez)
  • Best Race Result- Hulkenburg= 4th, Perez= 3rd (x2)

 

2017(1): Team-mate= Jolyon Palmer

  • *Points- Hulkenburg= 43, Palmer= 8
  • *Championship Position- Hulkenburg= 10th, Palmer= 17th
  • *Qualifying Head-To-Head- 16-0 (Hulkenburg)
  • *Racing Head-To-Head- 10-6 (Hulkenburg) 5-2 (Hulkenburg)
  • *Best Race Result- Hulkenburg= 6th (x3), Palmer= 6th

*= Palmer was replaced with Carlos Sainz after 16 rounds and thus the stats are over 16 rounds

 

2017(2): Team-mate= Carlos Sainz

  • *Points- Hulkenburg= 9, Sainz= 6
  • **Championship Position- N/A
  • *Qualifying Head-To-Head- 3-1 (Hulkenburg)
  • *Racing Head-To-Head- 2-2 1-0 (Hulkenburg)
  • *Best Race Result- Hulkenburg= 6th, Sainz= 7th

*= Carlos Sainz raced for Renault for the 4 remaining rounds of 2017 and thus these are stats from over 4 rounds

**= Championship Position is not given as Carlos Sainz scored 88% of his points with Toro Rosso and thus it wouldn’t be a representative comparison

 

2018: Team-mate= Carlos Sainz

  • Points- Hulkenburg= 69, Sainz= 53
  • Championship Position- Hulkenburg= 7th, Sainz= 10th
  • Qualifying Head-To-Head- 13-8 (Hulkenburg)
  • Racing Head-To-Head- 12-9 (Sainz) 8-4 (Hulkenburg)
  • Best Race Result- Hulkenburg= 5th, Sainz= 5th

 

Overall Qualifying and Racing Statistics: (158 races)

Qualifying:

  • Hulkenburg= 103, Team-mates= 55

Racing:

  • Hulkenburg= 79 (62), Team-mates= 79 (45)

 

From the data presented its clear to see that for the most part Hulkenburg has had the measure of his team-mates, the only real challenge he had was was from Sergio Perez in 2015 and 2016 and in this I’m being lenient as to not include 2010 as it was Hulkenburg’s first year in Formula One in which he was driving the sometimes difficult Williams FW32. Double that with the fact that he was up against Rubens Barrichello, a driver that had won 11 grand prix, was entering his 18th season in Formula One and had picked up advice from the likes of Jenson Button, Michael Schumacher and probably from his fellow countryman Ayrton Senna along the way as well, and it clear to see Hulkenburg was likely to come up second best in 2010 no matter what he did.

As said Perez was his only real challenge but realistically the likes of Gutierrez and Palmer weren’t going to beat Hulkenburg especially as he gained experience. The likes of di Resta and Sainz were more of a challenge but just not enough of a challenge to beat Nico across a season. In 2012 both Hulkenburg and di Resta had a best finish of 4th which they both achieved once and in 2018 both Hulkenburg and Sainz finished 5th once. A difference between the challenge of di Resta and Sainz is that towards the end of the season di Resta dropped in performance as he led Nico for the first 15 rounds (excluding one round) but then in the final 5 rounds he only scored 2 points to the 26 points of Hulkenburg and ultimately finished 17 points in arrears. With Sainz it was the start of the season that was slow as he only had 3 points to Hulkenburg’s 22 after three rounds but from round 12 to the end of the season Sainz outscored Hulkenburg 25-17. Both of these examples show that Hulkenburg, whilst beating team-mates in the standings, didn’t have the measure of them across the whole season. In these two instances I believe Sainz gave the tougher challenge and this is because he was entering his first season with Renault whilst Hulkenburg was entering his second. With di Resta it was the other way around as di Resta had been with Force India in 2011 whereas Hulkenburg had come back from a year out after being dropped by Williams. On top of this di Resta didn’t beat Hulkenburg in any of the compared stats whereas Sainz out-raced Hulkenburg 12-9, albeit being beaten 8-4 when both cars finished.

However, if Sainz would’ve stayed at Renault for a few more years I feel like he would’ve got the better of Hulkenburg, mirroring Perez. Perez’s first year at Force India finished with him being beaten 96 points to 59 points but beating Hulkenburg in terms of best race result and given time to acclimatise Perez soon became the driver on top as over the three years Hulkenburg and Perez spent at Force India Perez ended up outscoring Hulkenburg 238-226.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Hulkenburg, entering the Spanish Grand Prix and thus the European season, was leading Ricciardo in the standings. Evidence and common knowledge tells us that moving to a new team takes some acclimatising to before the driver in question is performing at their best and I’ve shown that it’s slightly tougher having Hulkenburg as you’re team-mate. I do expect however that over a season Ricciardo will have the legs on Hulkenburg as he is quicker than Perez and is more experienced than Sainz was. The battle between the two is going to be one of the best of the season especially when you add in the fact that Renault could be in the mix, at least closer to the top three. You never know, if Honda bomb Renault could be the third best team.

 

*All results tables and graphs are my own work

 

 

 

 

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