Is Nico Hulkenberg the next Mark Webber?

Nico Hulkenberg and Mark Webber

Champions are remembered

The title sounds scary isn’t it? And it should. Nico Hulkenberg is currently one of the best talented drivers amongst the sport’s new faces after Mark Webber retired from F1.

So it may be surprising how two different guys, one whose long career is underway, while the other who has bid the sports goodbye, be compared.

Mark Webber had an impressive career which warranted a mighty trophy cabinet. One amongst only 103 drivers to climb aboard the top step. He claimed nine victories and an impressive 42 podiums. But the Australian missed out on the ultimate prize: the World Championship, most agonizingly in 2010.

Getting your hands on that trophy, at a glittering FIA prize-giving gala in Paris in front of all of your rivals, is what every driver lucky enough to make it into F1 aspires to. If they say otherwise, they're lying. Win it just once and you’re name will forever be there amongst a short list of only 32 who have managed it in the sport's 63-year history. But fail to win it at all and you'll forever just be a number, one of more than 800 drivers who tried and failed.

Webber had the belief

Webber falls into the latter category. He says he achieved his childhood dream by making it into the sport, but looking back admits that, while he knew he was never going to be an all-time great, he had what it takes to join that exclusive 32-man club.

To be fair to Webber, just getting to F1 was a brilliant achievement. While four-time world champion Vettel had the luxury of being part of the Red Bull driver programme from his teens, Webber was scratching around for sponsorship to secure drives in various categories in Europe, having moved over from Australia.

So why did he never win the World Championship? Well firstly, he came up against one of the greats of the sport - Vettel. Webber was team leader at Red Bull before the young German joined in 2009. But almost instantly, Vettel seized control. The duo clashed several times during their partnership, most notably in the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix, when they collided while battling for the lead.

Same rules for everybody

Vettel also disobeyed the now infamous "Multi 21" team orders to pass Webber in the Malaysian Grand Prix. But despite Vettel's aggressive approach to competing with his team-mate, Webber cannot ignore the German's talents.

"I accepted that Vettel is talented many times," he said. "Seb is very, very good, no question about it. I'm completely comfortable with that."

But the Australian is less comfortable with the fact he was not always given a fair crack.

"You want the same, and the best opportunities to do the best that you can do," he said. "That's all you can ask. Obviously this year has been quite challenging in that respect."

No regrets

And then there's the timing. Webber doesn't use the word regret, but he hints at it when he mulls over the fact he got hold of front-running machinery when he was perhaps past his peak.

"David Coulthard was in the prime of his career at McLaren, whereas I was probably not in the super prime," said Webber. "I was in a good situation, but it would have been nice to be in my prime. If you want to be super fussy, you would have liked that. But you do the best with what you have.”

"I think you can always find the perfect window that suits you. Any driver, whether it's Jenson or Fernando or Lewis or whoever, will have their unique style - but we're not in a position where we can be fussy with that.”

"We're not tennis players that play on four different surfaces each year. We're in that fine envelope of always having to perform at the optimum and you have to have an inherent bit of flexibility within your skill-set. That's what sets the absolute greats apart."

Coulthard sums it up

BBC F1 co-commentator Coulthard knows all about just missing out, having finished second once and third four times in the drivers' standings while his McLaren team-mate Mika Hakkinen collected two titles.

"I came up short in my career in terms of not winning the championship," said Coulthard. "I was consistently struggling relative to my team-mates to deliver that single-lap speed.

"What separates the good drivers from the great drivers is that outright ability to deliver a timed lap, a single flying lap, consistently across a year." Had Schumacher not been around, Coulthard would probably have won the title. Equally, if Vettel hadn't, Webber could have - and Alonso and Hamilton could have added to their tallies.

Coulthard added: "I think Mark has had a successful career, absolutely. I don't think there's any shame for him because he is still a very good racing driver.

"I do know that Mark is fit, works hard and leaves no stone unturned, but in any given period, there are one or two exceptional people."

Putting finishing touches

Webber came closest to a title in 2010. Leading by 16 points with three races to go, he somehow finished the season finale in Abu Dhabi 14 behind Vettel.

"That was a special year, but it just wasn't meant to be," he said. "We know we didn't pick the easiest year to try and win a title either - it was a good battle. I had two non-finishes that year and had a lot of races where I put myself in contention because I drove very well. That was that." That failure to convert when he had the chance ultimately separates him from the greats.

Coulthard added: "In the six years, Mika Hakkinen and I were team-mates at McLaren, I finished in front of him two times in the championship, but when it really mattered, he finished in front of me - and those were championship-winning years [1998 and 1999] for him.

"It's not like I wasn't able to string together a better season than him, but I wasn't able to do it when it counted - and that's all that matters. It's about winning races and winning championships - that's the reason people compete. And I came up short."

Wins- Few and far between

You could argue that Webber never recovered from 2010, though stunning victories in the 2012 Monaco and British Grand Prix reminded everyone that, on his day, the Australian was capable of beating anyone. Unfortunately for him, his day wasn't often enough.

If Nico Hulkenberg’s predicament doesn’t sound familiar to Australian formula one observers, it should. Too tall for the craft in which he excels. Too heavy for a sport where this year, more than ever thanks to the revolutionary regulation change between seasons, every kilo counts. And with pockets too short to simply buy his way into a drive with a top team that talent alone can’t secure.

Filling up vacant spots

The parallels between 26-year-old Hulkenberg and Mark Webber are many. As Webber did before he landed a drive with Red Bull Racing in 2007, the German has regularly out-performed the capabilities of the machinery he’s driven in his first three seasons in the top flight.

That a driver of Hulkenberg’s talent is in his fourth F1 campaign at the mid-grid Force India team suggests his greatest failing is poor timing. The end of formula one’s V8 era and a raft of movement in the driver market saw the grid in a state of flux between seasons – only Mercedes and back markers Marussia sport the same driver line-ups as they had a year ago. Whenever a chance came up at a team that could give Hulkenberg the opportunity to showcase his skills at the front of the field, circumstance played its hand.

Webber’s departure to sports cars with Porsche opened up a seat at the sport’s benchmark team over the past four years, but that was quickly filled by Red Bull-backed junior Daniel Ricciardo. Ferrari elected to replace veteran Brazilian Felipe Massa after eight seasons for the Prancing Horse, but with the introduction of the new 1.6-litre V6 turbo engines headlining a raft of off-season alterations, Ferrari chose to renew ties with Kimi Raikkonen, a short-term solution to the questions posed by such a significant change to the sport.

With the extra weight of the new engines, complete with significantly more powerful energy recovery systems, saving kilograms became a greater priority for teams over the off-season. McLaren elected to offer its vacant second seat to unproven rookie Kevin Magnussen, a promising team protégé who also happened to be 10 centimeters shorter and six kilograms lighter than the 184 centimeter/74 kilogram Hulkenberg. And when Raikkonen’s move meant a seat opened up at the team that proved to be Red Bull’s greatest challenger at the end of last season, Lotus, Hulkenberg’s lack of financial backing rather than his biology saw him bypassed for Pastor Maldonado.

Maldonado comes with £30 million ($A55 million) a year in sponsorship from Venezuelan state-owned oil company PDVSA, an injection of funds that cash-strapped Lotus simply couldn’t ignore. In the end, Hulkenberg ended up back at Force India, leaving fellow mid-grid squad Sauber to return to the team that offered him a lifeline as a reserve driver in 2011 when Maldonado’s millions evicted him from his drive at Williams.

Learnt to adapt

While doors being closed in his face left and right would give Hulkenberg ample ammunition to be bitter about the sport in which he plies his trade, he’s elected to employ a more pragmatic approach, one born from a man who has become all too accustomed to making the best out of an unfavorable situation.

“With the money, it’s nothing new and we’ve had that for a while now,” he says.

“It’s not of any benefit for me to talk about to be honest because it is what it is now. It’s important for me to be here and I’m happy with where I sit and where I am, so I just want to go out there and perform.”

‘Heavy’ issues

The new, heavier engines employed this season have made weight a talking point over the off-season, with prominent drivers like McLaren’s Jenson Button admitting that he fasts before races and is “on the limit in our car” despite reducing his body fat to 6 per cent. For Hulkenberg, the tallest driver in the sport along with the 184cm Adrian Sutil at Sauber, his size compared with some of his rivals has left with him very little room to manoeuvre.

“Because I’m one of the taller drivers, pretty much last year I was already on my lowest limit,” he says.

“I think some of the other guys had some more weight in reserve that they had to lose now, but for me I’m more or less what I was at the end of last year. I couldn’t lose any more.”

Button took a similar path

Jenson Button celebrates after clinching the 2009 World Championship

While the German’s physique prompts comparisons with Webber, its Button’s career trajectory that provides Hulkenberg with belief that, eventually, his time will come. Like Hulkenberg, Button came onto the F1 scene with Williams, a promising rookie season in 2000 preceding frustrating stints at Benetton, British American Racing and Honda before winning the world championship with Brawn GP in his 10th season in 2009. Now 34, Button is revered as one of the sport’s statesmen, and with 247 grand prix starts, is the most experienced British driver in F1 history.

Button’s belated career success gives Hulkenberg ample inspiration that his move back to Force India merely isn’t a case of treading water in the relative anonymity of F1’s midfield.

“You’re always impatient, but where I drive is not something I can always choose, you have to rely on other people,” Hulkenberg says.

“It’s my fourth season now, but I’m still relatively fresh and young to formula one. Jenson had to wait much, much longer to get to where he is now and wait for that opportunity, and he got it. You’ve just got to hang in, perform well and focus on the present. You just have to do what you can to be in a position to have the opportunity one day.”

No changes expected in top teams

So while Hulkenberg is currently enjoying and being lauded for a near perfect consistent run this season, opportunities for driving in a top tier team is looking bleak in the coming few years. None of the drivers in these top teams are ready to hang up their racing helmets for good, irrespective of their performances. While the coveted drive for Ferrari remains elusive and the competition for the same racing seat in the form of Jules Bianchi doesn’t help the German either. While he may land a drive with a top team in the coming years, the risks are high that finally when this young talent finds himself behind competitive machinery he may be out of his prime.