Hülkenberg: Close to becoming Verstappen’s team mate – Nico Hulkenberg began his Formula One career with Williams at the outset of the 2010 Formula One season. He has enjoyed somewhat of a journeyman career in the sport, racing for Force India when he left the Grove based outfit who gave him his debut, before moving on to Sauber for a year then back to the Silverstone based team.
A works drive offer from the Renault team saw the German jump ship for three seasons before the French owned outfit decided to part ways with Hulkenberg. The Hulk was forced to return as the reserve driver for Racing Point/Aston Martin, before his career was revived in 2023 by a offer from Guenther Steiner at Haas F1.
Perez gets the nod
Helmut Marko has revealed just how close Nico Hulkenberg came to joining Red Bull at the end of the 2020 Formula 1 season, admitting the German was on the brink of landing the seat that ultimately went to Sergio Perez.
After losing his Renault drive at the conclusion of 2019, Hulkenberg was a free agent and in contention for one of the most coveted seats on the grid – partnering Max Verstappen at Red Bull. Marko has now disclosed that discussions between Hulkenberg and the Milton Keynes squad were well underway before a dramatic twist shifted the team’s focus elsewhere.
“At that time, he was working as a co-commentator with Servus TV \[Red Bull’s own broadcaster], so there was already a relationship, and the beginnings of talks,” Marko told F1-Insider.
“But then Perez won that race in Bahrain, and because of that, everything moved in Perez’s favour.”
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Perez’s Sakhir Triumph Made the Difference
The race Marko refers to was the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix, where Perez produced a sensational drive from the back of the grid to secure his maiden F1 victory.
That breakthrough not only salvaged the Mexican’s career, after being dropped by Racing Point, but also convinced Red Bull that he was the better fit alongside Verstappen.
Marko admitted the choice between the two drivers was far from clear-cut.
“It would have been a really good partnership,” he said. “Max and Nico get along very well, and Hulkenberg is a guaranteed points scorer. In our car, he would have been fighting at the front too.”
Still, Perez’s victory was impossible to ignore, and the Mexican ultimately got the nod.
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Four Years of Perez at Red Bull
Perez went on to spend four full seasons with Red Bull, from 2021 through 2024, serving as Verstappen’s right-hand man during a period of domination that delivered multiple world championships to the team.
The Mexican often played the role of support driver, executing strategies that helped Verstappen consolidate his titles. Though inconsistent at times, his contributions cemented Red Bull’s position at the top of the sport.
But with Liam Lawson stepping in for 2025, Perez’s tenure ended, closing the chapter on what might be remembered as one of the most crucial decisions in Red Bull’s modern history.
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Marko: No Regrets
Looking back, Marko insists he has no regrets about choosing Perez over Hulkenberg, despite acknowledging how close the decision really was.
“Actually, I stand by all our decisions,” he explained. “And one has to consider that more than 95% of the drivers who leave our programme still go on to race in Formula E, WEC, DTM, or elsewhere. They earn good money – far more than in most other professions – and they continue doing what they love: competing in motorsport. And that was often made possible by our support.”
The Austrian added that Formula 1 demands more than raw talent. “F1 is the absolute peak. To succeed here, you need special qualities – mental strength, physical resilience, and a very particular character.”
Hulkenberg’s Path Forward
Though the Red Bull deal never materialized, Hulkenberg’s career in F1 did not fade away. After making cameo appearances as Aston Martin’s reserve in 2022, he earned a full-time return with Haas in 2023, before moving on to Sauber in 2025.
For a driver once known as the “nearly man” of Formula 1 for his long wait for a podium, Hulkenberg has shown resilience and persistence, carving out a respected career across more than a decade in the sport.
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The Fine Margins of F1
Marko’s candid admission underlines just how precarious career paths can be in Formula 1. A single race – Perez’s stunning Sakhir drive – was enough to alter the course of two drivers’ futures and shape Red Bull’s direction for the next four seasons.
For Hulkenberg, it remains a tantalizing “what if?” – a chance that was nearly his, only to slip away at the final hurdle. For Red Bull, the choice validated itself as Perez became a reliable ally in Verstappen’s championship campaigns.
In the end, it is another reminder of how ruthlessly fine the margins are at the very top of the sport – where one weekend’s triumph or misstep can rewrite the history books.
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The Ferrari Formula One team hunted down McLaren across the last six race weekends in 2024. The SF-24 was the class of the field in the last quarter of the season, closing a 79 point gap to the papaya liveried team to just fourteen when the chequered flag closed out the year in Abu Dhabi.
Yet Ferrari strangely decided to build a whole new car for 2025, despite the current set of car design regulations coming to an end this year. Meanwhile McLaren opted for evolution for this year’s F1 challenger, a decision in hindsight which has proven to the better route to take.
The engineers in Maranello believed they needed to switch their suspension philosophy for the big regulation changes coming next season. They switched their traditional push rod layout at the front of the car to a pull rod system instead. This would improve the aerodynamics of the airflow around the car, but more importantly improve the anti-dive characteristics of the SF-25 allowing the team to access setups which would allow the car to be run lower to the ground…. READ MORE
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