Nico Hulkenberg ties disappointing record with Chinese Grand Prix appearance

Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg at the 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Nico Hullkenberg may have delivered an impressive performance at the Chinese Grand Prix, but it could not spare him from re-writing the Formula 1 history books in an unwanted way.

Hulkenberg is a veteran figure of the Formula 1 grid, having first debuted back in 2010 and to this day is still regarded as one of the strongest natural talents out there. However, in one corner of the F1 records book, that experience is working against him.

Nico Hulkenberg now keeping Andrea de Cesaris company

Hulkenberg’s appearance in the Chinese Grand Prix marked his 208th start in F1, but with none of those having yielded a win, it means he has matched Andrea de Cesaris’ record for most races without a victory. Hulkenberg, for all his talent, incredibly has never made the podium before in F1 either.

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Such statistics can be very misleading though when it comes to actual performance level, as Hulkenberg continued his very impressive start to the F1 2024 campaign with a P10 finish in China, ensuring that the Haas driver took a point away from Shanghai to increase his season tally to four.

Haas team-mate Kevin Magnussen has scored just the one point so far this season and suffered a nightmare Grand Prix in China, picking up a 10-second time penalty after colliding with RB’s Yuki Tsunoda, which forced Tsunoda to retire from the race.

Hulkenberg meanwhile was delighted with his solid, point-scoring drive, reflecting on it as a “faultless” display to reinforce Haas’ current P7 spot in the F1 2024 Constructors’ Championship.

“It was a faultless and clean race from my side today,” he said.

“I think it was a well-managed and well-controlled race from the team. It’s a positive and I’m very happy about that – we got that one point that was up for grabs today.

“One of the top-five team’s cars [Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin] had a problem and that’s the spot we got because of it, otherwise it’s not really possible to race with them.

“It also shows we need to have a perfect qualifying on Saturday and a perfect race on Sunday to be able to be where we are today. We couldn’t have done much more. One point, in our world, is a lot!”

The odds are certainly not in Hulkenberg’s favour to avoid setting a new outright record for most F1 races without a win as the season heads for its next battleground, the Miami Grand Prix.