He seems to have powered ahead in the GP2 championship over the weekend. Does anyone else think he will now go on to win the Championship against his more experienced rivals, Hamilton '06 style? Grosjean seems to have gone back to his inconsistent self.

I believe we will be seeing this hot prospect in F1 next season... FOR SURE! ;)

Hope so! I absolutley love his name! Sounds great to hear no matter where he is. But yea it would be great to see him in F1. Nice to stir the pot now n then, and he should do well, one would think.

Very talented IMO and i think if Frank Williams had to choose his 2nd driver without any Toyota pressure this kid would be in F1 right now. He'll be in F1 next year but there is a downside. I can just imagine Legard using ridiculuos puns over and over again when Nico Hulkenburg overtakes someone,"And the Hulk muscles his way throught on the inside," or "You don't want to make the Hulk angry do you," or "The Hulk's angry becuase he's on a charge," etc.

He's been consistent this year, but he hasn't really 'shined' until this last round, and its a track that he knows very well.

And no, I dont think he'll just walk away from here. If Grosjean stays, I think he'll be winning more races.

Grosjean actually drove very well this last round. He went from 14th to 6th in the Feature before his car died, and then went from 22nd to 5th in the wet Sprint race.

You'd be foolish to count him out.

Even if Grosjean does leave, I think Petrov will be there to hassle him. And maybe Di Grassi on occasion.

HAHA! Or "He's hit an Hülken-ice-berg" if he hits a barrier n such lol ;)

What about Zuber. Is he good?

They where talking on Eurosport about how Hulk's manager (Schui's one) has stated that he will probably be in F1 next but not with Williams (they don't think the car's going to be competative.)

Take it for what it's worth.

That's strange. Where could he go that is better than Williams? Maybe BMW are interested. That's all I can think of.

Wow that sure contracdicts Rosberg with his inclined hand in the bbc post race forum. I thought Williams was on the up n up!

Hulk pretty much pulls off the same story as last year in F3. Being rookie, having a shaky start and by mid-season pulling ahead and dominating the others. Quite impressive. No doubt he'll have a great career. What could possibly go wrong with Willi Weber as his manager?

So one dominant race weekend at a track he knows very well and you've come to the conclusion he'll run away with the competition now?

I think this is a case of people thinking a driver is only as good as his last race.

And Hulk was not a rookie in F3 Euro last year. It was actually his 3rd year in F3 overall.

I hope so, he did well in F3 and A1GP and now he's winning and improving in GP2 as well, having a manager like Weber should be a big help in securing a decent seat for 2010.

Ifso it's going to be difficult for all German drivers to find national sponsors, with Sutil, Rosberg, Vettel, Glock, Heidfeld and Hulkenberg possibly on the grid next year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_H%C3%...g#Racing_record

I have nothing to add to the discussion, but when I hovered over the thread title to skim the first post, it ended thus:



So I had to come in to see how the sentence ended.

Very impressive, the more I hear about this guy, the more I think he will be sucess. I wish Williams were not forced to choose Nakajima.

Yes, but he's not great, which is kind of the point.

Just don't give him a brand new car to test...

Hamilton trashed a new McLaren when he tested it 2 years ago, and it didn't do him much harm.

Just going from memory though. Nico Hulkenberg has not been particularly fast in testing, but he seems to do well in races.

It's important that he go to Williams, since TR has now eliminated the only same driver name team.

They'd just be swapping Nicos then.

Actually, I was not impressed. His championship lead over the two other contenders is just a handful of points, and that can vanish in one weekend.
He's not like Hamilton who used to blow away the field.

Except that he didn't: Hamilton built up over the season, started to win races, and then almost lost to Piquet before getting it done in the final round.

Hulkenberg has been remarkably Hamiltonesque so far in GP2, and with Grosjean going will have one less competitor: so far di Grassi has been underwhelming compared to his ability this year, while Petrov has been way more consistant than anyone expected, but Nico seems to have the pound seat right now as he's coming into form at the right time, and there is no mid-season testing to sort out the car (or the driver) for his competitors.

Although Grosjean leaving will put an unfortunate * next to his or anyone else's titles.

Hulkenburg, Bruno Senna are racing in lower formulae

And we have Alguriassrry, Piquet racing in F1

Wow!

Nakajima a fixture there?

No, but he's doing a decent enough job this year to justify his part of the Toyota cost, and Rosberg is probably going to BMW, so it's a fairly obvious move.

I agree, his name is a lot of fun to say. It really does sound like a winner's name.

Do you try to be an idiot or is it a talent?

Did notknow about the Rosberg move. I heard something about Klien, but probably just rumour, plus I would go for Rosberg before Klien.

Ferrari should get him ;) .. Cheap and will be effective.

So Nico Hülkenberg has become the first man since Lewis Hamilton to win the GP2 at his first attempt against more experienced drivers.

I think it's fairly certain he will be in F1 next season, probably at Williams. How do you think he will do?

I've been really impressed with him this season, I think he is a potential WDC of the future if he continues to develop as quickly as he is at the moment.

The standard of the field this year was pathetic tbh if his main rival was someone like Petrov, Hamilton beat a much stronger field than Hulkenberg has but you can only beat what is infront of you and he has done that impressively in A1 and GP2 so looks to have a bright future

I think 6 drivers from one nation alone is going to be too many for an F1 grid. I think Heidfeld will be lucky to stay on the grid next season.

No worries.

I think Hulkeberg totally deserves an F1 seat.

Not his fault the field might not have been mega strong.

GP2 can throw plenty of curve balls, but Hulkenberg has driven with great maturity.

He also has a F3 Euroseries crown, and dominated A1GP for Germany a few years back.

I can't think of many drivers with a stronger junior record.

Frank Williams has probably signed him for a race drive already, and power to him.

He's a star of the future.

Nicolas Hülkenberg have all the credentials needed to get a F1 chance.

"Star of the Future"........

We have seen too many of those, for me to declare anyone that.

It is noteworthy that his agent is one Willie Weber, or it is possibly completely meaningless (Weber may not even be his agent anymore).

Sure, but Hulkenberg has delivered despite the hype.

He's the best prepared and credentialed F1 rookie since Lewis Hamilton, who turned out to be quite OK...

Agree.

And both were also brought in slowly, instead of directly from Grade School.

There is a lesson for those trying to make some of the young drivers into something which they are not (at least not yet).

Lewis Hamilton, however is very special, and we will likely not see any driver like him for the next couple of years.

Completely agree, only downside imo is that he's German.

Please bare with me I'm no germanophobe (quite the contrary) but if all current drivers from Germany stay then Hulkenberg will be the 6th one (assuming that the new teams don't bring in yet another German driver and that Schumi doesn't return).

You know what JPW, I thought that very same thing this morgen, and was going to start a thread on it called Zee Chermans but thought the humour might get lost in the mix!

But yeah, lots of Germans in F1 next year by the looks of things.

Just trying to think of the last time so many drivers of one nationality were in F1?

Perhaps during 1995 when Hill, Coulthard, Irvine, Herbert, Brundle and Blundell were all running?

Irvine is from the Republic of Ireland so he doesn't count

And Coulthard was Scottish and Herbert was from the People's Republic of Essex.

Yes one has to be careful these days hence my disclaimer

Indeed 1995 possibly although I don't know if DC or Irvine would see themselves as British.

History will record them as such though, they raced with the union flag on their cars didn't they?

Lol, Hamilton's main rival was Piquet!

...and Rosberg's rival was Kovalainen, and Scott Speed.

Timo Glock.... who did he have?

Glock 88
Di Grassi 77
Pantano 59
Filippi 59
Nakajima 44

2005
--
Rosberg
Kovalainen
Speed
Premat
Carroll
Pantano
Jani
Piquet
Lopez
Bruni

2006
--
Hamilton
Piquet
Premat
Glock
Pantano
Viso
Bruni
Carroll
Lapierre
Lopez

2007
--
Glock
Di Grassi
Panatano
Fillippi
Villa
Nakajima
Carroll
Senna
Zuber
Garcia

2008
--
Pantano
Senna
Di Grassi
Grosjean
Maldonado
Buemi
Petrov
Parente
Zuber
Chandhok

2009
--
Hülkenberg
Petrov
Di Grassi
Grosjean
Maldonado
van der Garde
d'Ambrosio
Parente
Fillippi
Perez

No he's not. He's from County Down, Northern Ireland, which is of course part of the United Kingdom.

• Williams have pulled out of the contract with Toyota for 2010 allegedly.
• Nakaijima probably won't be there next season, after a poor showing in 2009 and as Toyota placed him there in exchange for cheap/free engines.
• Nakajima made his debut in the final round of the 2007 season, as an evaluation for a 2008 drive in place of the retired Wurz.
• It looks as though they will sign Hülkenberg for next year, the GP2 champion with 1 round left (which is this weekend in Portugal).

Nicolas Hülkenberg in the Williams after Suzuka perhaps?

But he raced under a Free State licence. Hence the confusion.