Nico Hülkenberg, German race car driver
Nicolas Hülkenberg (German pronunciation: [ˈniːko ˈhʏlkənbɛɐ̯k], born 19 August 1987) is a German professional racing driver who currently serves as the reserve driver in Formula One for Aston Martin F1 Team. In 2015, he also contested two rounds of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship season for Porsche, winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans on his first attempt. He was the 2009 GP2 Series champion, and is a previous champion of both the Formula 3 Euro Series and A1 Grand Prix, as part of A1 Team Germany. He is one of six drivers since 2005 to win the GP2 Series/Formula 2 championship in his debut season, the others being Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, Charles Leclerc, George Russell, and Oscar Piastri. As of March 2022, Hülkenberg holds the record for the most Formula One career starts without a podium finish, a record he broke when he failed to finish in his 129th race (the 2017 Singapore Grand Prix) and in so doing passed Adrian Sutil's previous record of 128; Hülkenberg's record stands at 181 Grands Prix.Hülkenberg raced in Formula One in 2010 with the Williams team. Despite claiming the first pole position for Williams in more than five years, he was not retained for 2011 and joined Force India as a test and reserve driver. He was promoted to a race seat with the team for the 2012 season, joining Paul di Resta. In 2013 he drove for the Sauber team, with Mexican driver Esteban Gutiérrez as his teammate. Hülkenberg returned to Force India for the 2014 season. In October 2016, it was confirmed that he would switch to Renault for 2017. He was replaced by Esteban Ocon for the 2020 Formula One season. He returned to Formula One in 2020, driving for Racing Point in three races. And then returned again to replace Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin at the first two races of the 2022 season following Vettel's positive COVID test.