Formula 1 team completes flip flop after going with two rookie drivers to 2021 season.
- Nico Hulkenberg has not raced full time since 2019 but has remained involved in Formula 1 through a reserve role at Aston Martin.
- While it is good news for one German racer it is bad news for his younger compatriot, with Mick Schumacher now facing a future off the Formula 1 grid.
- Now aged 35, the journeyman racer gets a full-time renaissance with Haas, his fifth different team.
The Haas F1 Team will bring Nico Hulkenberg back from the cold after signing the veteran as Kevin Magnussen’s teammate for the 2023 Formula 1 season.
Hulkenberg has not raced full-time since 2019 but has remained involved in Formula 1 through a reserve role at Aston Martin. He made the most recent of his 181 starts at this year’s Saudi Arabian round, finishing 12th.
While it is good news for one German racer it is bad news for his younger compatriot, with Mick Schumacher now facing a future off the Formula 1 grid.
Hulkenberg debuted in Formula 1 in 2010 after a prolific junior career and was a permanent fixture from 2012 through 2019. A promising rookie campaign at Williams, in which he scored an impressive pole in Brazil, was followed by several years at Force India, bookending a season at Sauber.
During that period, he established a reputation as a solid pair of hands in the midfield.
Nico Hulkenberg has started 181 Formula 1 races in his career.
Eric AlonsoGetty Images
A move to Renault in 2017 was ostensibly Hulkenberg’s ticket to move upwards but the French marque remained glued to the midfield and after three years the partnership ended, with Hulkenberg having been beaten by Daniel Ricciardo.
A peculiar statistic remained Hulkenberg’s lack of a single podium finish, partly through circumstance, and partly through either driver or team fumbles when rare opportunities swung his way.
Hulkenberg was left without a seat for 2020 and showed little interest in establishing a platform outside of Formula 1, instead remaining connected to the championship. That was despite arguably his CV highlight coming outside of Formula 1, when he won the Le Mans 24 Hours with Porsche in 2015.
He took up a reserve position with Racing Point, competing three times in the COVID-hit 2020 season, and remained at the squad through its transition into Aston Martin, dovetailing duties there with race commentary work. He made two starts in 2022—in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in March—when Sebastian Vettel was sidelined by COVID and also took part in a tire test in Hungary.
Now aged 35, the journeyman racer gets a full-time renaissance with Haas, his fifth different team, and one which has been in the lower midfield this season. It is hardly an inspirational alliance but one that works for Hulkenberg—returning him to the elite— and, if he delivers more points than Schumacher, Haas will regard it as a justified and pragmatic switch.
The move gives Haas two seasoned veteran drivers and is a complete reversal from 2021 when the team went with youth, fielding a pair of rookies in Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher.
“I’m naturally very pleased to be welcoming Nico back to a full-time racing role in Formula 1,” said Haas boss Guenther Steiner. “The experience and knowledge base Nico brings to the team is clear to see—with nearly 200 career starts in Formula 1—and a reputation as being a great qualifier and a solid, reliable racer. These are attributes, which when you pair them together with Kevin’s experience, gives us a very credible and well-seasoned driver lineup which we believe will help push the team onwards up the grid.
“That’s obviously the goal and it was that ambition that has prompted Nico’s return to Formula 1—he shares our vision and can be a key player together with the rest of the team in building on the foundations we’ve laid this year with our return to the points battle.”
Hulkenberg described himself as “very happy” at securing a full-time return to Formula 1 and quipped “I feel like I never really left.”
He will drive Haas’ VF-22 for the first time during Tuesday’s post-season test in Abu Dhabi.
Look at 2023 F1 Grid
Hulkenberg’s return effectively seals the lineup of the 2023 grid with all 20 seats ostensibly now taken.
Williams will promote Logan Sargeant to a race seat if he secures the required points for the Super License in the Formula 2 finale this weekend. It is highly likely that he will do so.
Logan Sargeant is on track to start on the grid for Williams in 2023.
Joe Portlock – Formula 1Getty Images
Sargeant will replace Nicholas Latifi at Williams, while joining the Canadian in departing will be Daniel Ricciardo and Schumacher, alongside the retiring Sebastian Vettel.
Ricciardo will be replaced by compatriot Oscar Piastri, after the long-time Alpine junior signed a multi-year McLaren deal, while Fernando Alonso will take the spot of Vettel at Aston Martin.
That unexpectedly opened a vacancy at Alpine, since filled by Pierre Gasly, who in turn will be replaced at AlphaTauri by full-season rookie Nyck de Vries.
The majority of Formula 1’s front-runners are on long-term deals, with World Champion Max Verstappen committed to Red Bull Racing through 2028, and team-mate Sergio Perez signed up until 2024.
Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have deals through 2024, while George Russell is on a long-term Mercedes deal; his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, only has a deal for 2023 but the seven-time champion and Mercedes are expected to wrap up a multiyear extension during the impending winter recess. Lando Norris is contracted to McLaren through 2025.
F1 2023 Grid
Red Bull Racing: Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez
Ferrari: Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz
Mercedes: Lewis Hamilton, George Russell
Alpine: Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly
McLaren: Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri
Alfa Romeo: Valtteri Bottas, Zhou Guanyu
Aston Martin: Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll
Haas: Kevin Magnussen, Nico Hulkenberg
AlphaTauri: Yuki Tsunoda, Nyck de Vries
Williams: Alexander Albon, Logan Sargeant
Keyword: Why Haas F1 Picked Nico Hulkenberg to Continue Team's Growth