Kick Sauber driver Nico Hulkenberg of Germany holds the trophy as he celebrates 3rd position during the British Formula One Grand Prix race at the Silverstone racetrack in Silverstone, England, Sunday, July 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Nico Hülkenberg, age 37, is the third oldest driver currently in Formula 1 (F1) behind only Fernando Alonso (43) and Lewis Hamilton (39). He’s a journeyman driver, of sorts, having driven for Williams, Force India, Sauber, Renault, Racing Point, Aston Martin, Haas, and now Kick Sauber (with several back-and-forth seasons between teams and a few as only a reserve driver).

Known for his great technical acumen, meaning he gives useful feedback to teams about car setups during practice sessions, he’s been a valued member of the teams who have signed him. He also has great one-lap pace in a car, making him excel at qualifying even when the car he’s in isn’t as competitive.

During races, however, he often fades away to fourth place or lower. In his 238 race starts leading up to the British Grand Prix on Sunday, July 6, Hülkenberg never finished on the podium, the elevated stands reserved for celebrations for the top three drivers at the end of a race.

This season, with Kick Sauber, Hülkenberg had some decent qualifying runs, but not a lot of point scoring finishes. In F1, only the top ten finishers in a race score points out of the twenty that race. In the opening round in Australia, Hülkenberg finished in seventh, scoring six points, in a hopeful start. It wasn’t until June, however, that things would turn around.

Hülkenberg had a great race, pacing the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton in the late stages of the Spanish Grand Prix to claim fifth place. In Canada, he finished in eighth followed up by a ninth place finish in Austria, all in the points. Aside from Canada, Hülkenberg had strangely poor qualifying results in these races which he turned around in the race, the opposite of his normal pattern.

The Austrian race in particular was impressive for Hülkenberg as he qualified in twentieth, dead last. He would need something like that again for the British Grand Prix as he qualified in nineteenth, the last person on the grid once again as Alpine’s Franco Colapinto wasn’t able to take the race start.

Rain had come through early in the morning in Silverstone, home to the British Grand Prix, and more rain fell just before the race started. Rain came back on lap 10, and by lap 14, it was intense enough that race control called out the safety car.

When they were able to restart, an accident caused the safety car to come out once again on lap 18, and, at other points, a few virtual safety cars were used for other drivers off track and other accidents. In short, it was a chaotic race filled with several tire changes for all drivers and conditions so difficult, only one of the six rookie drivers was able to make it to the end of the race.

Hülkenberg, however, thrived on the chaos unfolding around him. With the other drivers trying a multitude of different strategies and a spin from superstar Max Verstappen, Hülkenberg soon found himself in fourth place behind Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.

While initially seeming content to sit behind Stroll, Hülkenberg upped his pace when Lewis Hamilton’s bright red Ferrari started looming in his rear-view mirrors. Quickly dispatching of Stroll, Hülkenberg was now in third and in line for a podium.

This wasn’t unfamiliar territory for him, however; in his career, Hülkenberg has spent 177 laps in a podium position. It just wasn’t until this race that one of those laps was finally the last lap.

Hülkenberg’s manager nicknamed him “the Hulk” early on in his career, saying the driver transformed in personality once behind the wheel of a race car. While the nickname stuck, the idea that he was ferocious behind the wheel never played out as his driving style is far more cautious and risk avoidant than the larger-than-life superhero.

Still, perhaps it was poignant the Kick Sauber cars have a bright green livery this season to help bring out the Hulk side of Hülkenberg. He drove his heart out keeping Hamilton’s Ferrari in fourth and earned the podium he landed in this race.

On the flip side of Hülkenberg’s luck, McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, driver’s championship leader, deserved the race win in Britain. Instead, he was relegated to second place after the stewards handed him a 10-second penalty for “braking erratically” behind the safety car.

The reason it was a ten second and not a five second penalty, it seems, is because he did this when the lights were extinguished on the safety car, meaning it was coming in that lap. The first place driver is then in charge of the race pace and Piastri was deemed to have violated the rules.

There were two safety car periods back-to-back and Piastri led the field through both of them. He drove nearly identically on both restarts, braking enough to slow about 100 mph in nearly the same place, but was penalized for the second one, and not the first. No mention of anything on the first restart, in fact.

Personally, I find it ludicrous and it robbed Piastri of his win. Piastri’s teammate, Lando Norris, was subsequently gifted a prized home win for the British driver. Norris had no trouble relishing his win, and the McLaren team isn’t about to challenge the stewards because their drivers came in first and second, maximizing the point haul for the team. Why rock the boat?

When asked about the penalty, Piastri said, “I’m not going to say too much, because I’ll get myself in trouble.” I’ll follow his lead before I come across as biased or get myself, too, in trouble.

Still, the British Grand Prix left me with a sense of delight in the culture of F1 because nearly all of the drivers and most all of the teams took the time in their individual press conferences to congratulate Hülkenberg on his podium finish in one of those rare moments in sports when a small, overwhelmingly positive thing shines a light so bright, it dims whatever else is going on.

Piastri himself said, “So well done to Nico. I think that’s the highlight of the day.” Both the Mercedes and Aston Martin teams delivered some champagne to the Kick Sauber garage so they could continue their celebrations.

McLaren as a team still leads the championship with more points than the next two teams combined (and more than fourth through tenth place combined!). Piastri still leads the driver’s championship, albeit by a reduced margin over his teammate.

But, no longer can anyone say that Nico Hülkenberg doesn’t have any podium finishes in his career with his third place finish in this race. Congrats Nico!

Belgium is the venue for the next round of racing with the feature race taking place on Sunday, July 27, at 9 a.m. Eastern Time.