Why Haas F1 Picked Nico Hulkenberg to Continue Team's Growth

• 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.

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.