Nico Hulkenberg has tied the record for starting the most grands prix without ever winning one.
Today’s Chinese Grand Prix was Hulkenberg’s 208th start in a grand prix. He equalled the record set by Andrea de Cesaris 30 years ago.However unlike de Cesaris, Hulkenberg has never reached the podium either. He already holds the record for most grands prix without appearing on the rostrum.
Both drivers’ careers spanned 14 years. De Cesaris made his F1 debut in 1980 with Alfa Romeo, the first of 10 different teams he drove for before retiring late in 1994. He competed in every season, but was dropped by Ligier halfway through his second season with them in 1985 following his latest crash.
In contrast Hulkenberg arrived in F1 with a sky-high reputation from the junior categories. He took Germany to victory in A1 Grand Prix, won the Formula 3 Euroseries and clinched the GP2 (now Formula 2) title on his debut, as Lewis Hamilton did three years before him.
A promising debut season with Williams culminated in a stunning pole position at the Brazilian Grand Prix. But by that time the cash-strapped team had already told Hulkenberg he would be replaced by Pastor Maldonado and his Venezuelan millions.
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After a year on the sidelines, Hulkenberg made an impressive return in 2012 with Force India (now Aston Martin) and could have won at Interlagos that year, where he led 30 laps before going out in a collision with Hamilton. He made an ill-advised switch to Sauber before rejoining his previous team, where he stayed for three years, but was unable to replicate team mate Sergio Perez’s occasional forays into the top three. A mixture of mistakes and misfortune accounted for the few opportunities which came his way.
With his move to Renault in 2017 it seemed Hulkenberg finally had the chance to lead a manufacturer-basked operation to the front. But further podium chances eluded him, most painfully when he crashed out on home ground in 2019, and he was dropped at the end of the year. After a few ‘super-sub’ reappearances, Hulkenberg made a full-time return at Haas, where he has demonstrated his strong one-lap pace, but hasn’t yet had the equipment to challenge for the podium finish which is now well overdue, let alone a victory.
Career summaries: de Cesaris and Hulkenberg
| Nico Hulkenberg | Andrea de Cesaris | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts | 208 | 208 |
| Participations | 225 | 214 |
| Best race finish | 4th (x3) | 2nd (x2) |
| Best championship finish | 7th (2018) | 8th (1983) |
| Best grid position | 1st (1) | 1st (1) |
| Teams | Williams (2010) Force India (2012, 2014-16) Sauber (2013) Renault (2017-19) Racing Point (2020) Aston Martin (2022) Haas (2023-24) | Alfa Romeo (1980, 1982-83) McLaren (1981) Ligier (1984-85) Minardi (1986) Brabham (1987) Rial (1988) Scuderia Italia (1989-90) Jordan (1991, 1994) Tyrrell (1992-93) Sauber (1994) |
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De Cesaris and Hulkenberg’s careers in pictures
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2024 Chinese Grand Prix
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Derek Edwards
22nd April 2024, 12:47
De Cesaris had a great run at Spa in 1983 as well, leading comfortably until the pitstops, but it’s all too easy to remember his many moments of brain fade – putting his team mate into the wall while being lapped (Phoenix 1989), driving into another car while lapping (Monaco 1989). Surely his finest moment of madness was at the start of the Austrian Grand Prix in 1982 when he went over to one side of the track and then all the way to the other side to put his team mate into the barrier and take both Alfas out of the race before the first corner.
Jonathan Parkin
22nd April 2024, 12:55
Andrea first had this record at the Japanese GP in 1989 when he inherited it off the previous incumbent Eddie Cheever whose career lasted 145 starts without a win. Andrea’s 146th start was the aforementioned race.
Whilst his sacking from Ligier is well documented, he actually didn’t crash out much in races that year, so virtually all his accidents must have been in qualifying or practice
Jonathan Parkin
22nd April 2024, 13:04
Apologies I got my stats wrong. Eddie Cheever took place in only 132 races so Andrea beat the record on his 133rd start which was in fact the 1989 Spanish GP not Japanese
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
22nd April 2024, 13:41
Hulkenberg obviously massively amplified this record, as not only he didn’t win in as many races, but didn’t even get a podium.
While he made mistakes when there were opportunities, some luck is also needed if you don’t ever get a proper car, like hulkenberg; I believe he would be capable of winning races with a top car, even if not dominant, so I’m not talking about the last few years, but for example a 2021 red bull or merc.
Ankita
22nd April 2024, 15:35
Well … PER grabbed at least three podiums while they race with the same car and and finished well ahead in points in the last two of the three seasons they were together. And these days PER is rated very poorly …
Aaditya
22nd April 2024, 15:41
Hulkenberg also beat Sainz by a decent margin the year they were teammates. And these days Sainz is rated very highly…
I understand that these comparisons are useful but you are talking about something that happened 8-9 years ago. A lot can change in such a long time.
MichaelN
22nd April 2024, 15:40
He has had limited chances, sure. But not none. Pérez took four podiums while teammates to Hülkenberg, races in which he finished 5th, 6th, 11th and 12th. And while four podiums for Pérez doesn’t sound like much, that was out of 61 races. So about 1 in 15, which isn’t super rare. And not unimportant, while Hülkenberg usually qualified ahead of Pérez, the latter usually finished ahead of Hülkenberg.
Aaditya
22nd April 2024, 15:45
Perez didn’t usually finish ahead of Hulkenberg. They were very evenly matched (either hulk or perez led 23-22 in races they both completed, I think). I think Hulkenberg has improved a lot in terms of race pace since that time. He struggled a lot in the early days of the hybrid era… especially 2014-2016. He struggled again in the beginning of last year, at least in comparison to Magnussen, but has made steady progress since then and his race pace seems quite good these days.
F1Genova (@f1genova)
22nd April 2024, 14:38
Lando will break this at some point
David (@nvherman)
22nd April 2024, 18:13
@f1genova highly unlikely. Norris has shown that he can finish on the podium frequently, not least last Sunday.
Dane
22nd April 2024, 15:35
If Williams had kept Hulkenburg instead of Maldonado for 2011 might it have been Nico winning the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix? How different his career might’ve looked after that.
Aaditya
22nd April 2024, 15:40
Hulkenberg also beat Sainz by a decent margin the year they were teammates. And these days Sainz is rated very highly…
I understand that these comparisons are useful but you are talking about something that happened 8-9 years ago. A lot can change in such a long time.
MichaelN
22nd April 2024, 15:44
In qualifying, yes. But in the races it was pretty much equal, with a boatload of retirements for both (but especially Hülkenberg) complicating the comparison.
Aaditya
22nd April 2024, 16:03
My comment here was supposed to be in response to Ankita’s comment. Regardless, in terms of retirements in 2018, Hulk had 7 and Sainz had 2. They were pretty close by the end of the year in terms of race pace but Sainz struggled a little in the beginning of the year in that department as well.
RR
22nd April 2024, 17:36
Hulk was on his way to a win at Interlagos one year. He stopped to give the car a quick wipe down so it looked good at the chequered flag. Everybody else zoomed past.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
22nd April 2024, 18:37
Red Bull should let him have Max’s car for one round. Job done.
Janith
23rd April 2024, 5:49
Lando will break this record
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
23rd April 2024, 7:29
I don’t agree with that at all. Hulkenberg was put back on the map by the second half of 2013. After scoring 7 points in the first 11 races, he was in the top 9 6 times in the last 8 including a fourth in Korea and 5th in Italy. He also started 7th in India where he wasn’t classified. For a driver in clearly the 6th best car that season, to split the Mclarens in the championship was seen as a coming of age.
Without Lotus’ financial troubles Raikkonen would likely have stayed there and Hulkenberg would have ended up in the Ferrari for 2014. Given the Sauber Ferrari links over the years, and that Perez got the McLaren seat off the back of strong showings in the Sauber it was worth the one season gamble which I still believe was the true peak of Nico’s career.
José Lopes da Silva
23rd April 2024, 22:21
The obvious candidate to beat this record in the future is Lance Stroll. He’s just 25 years old and he has already 146 starts; without risk of getting fired, he can spend another ten seasons in F1, adding more than 200 starts to this tally and reach something like 350 GP without winning.
Or Aston Martin develops a winning car and he ends up inheriting the odd race like Patrese in Suzuka 1992 or Webber in Interlagos 2011.