Nico Hulkenburg takes his first podium of his Formula one career - A joyous celebration for Stake F1 Team

The crowds at Silverstone reached a record 500,000 heads and along with the millions of worldwide viewers at home, fans witnessed not just Lando Norris winning his home grand prix for the first time but also the very first podium for German driver Niko Hulkenburg.

After a race full of safety cars, crashes, spin offs and penalties, it was Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri and Nico Hulkenburg who secured the top three positions. The most surprising of the three being Hulkenburg as he is not a driver we are used to seeing celebrate on the steps of the formula one podium. However, at the British Grand Prix 2025, fans witnessed Hulkenburg’s first ever podium of his F1 career, in a car that is definitely not a top 3 car. Even more impressive is that he started at the back of the grid in p19 and worked his way through everything the race threw at him to finish in p3, “I think we were really just on it, the right calls, the right tyres in the right moment. We made no mistakes and it’s quite incredible”. The quote showing a huge contrast to where the team were in 2024 after weekends of horrific pitstops. So, let’s talk about the German driver and the Stake team.

Nico Hulkenburg started his competitive karting career in Germany at the age of 10. He graduated into junior formulae in 2005 winning the championship with BMW ADAC. The German driver continued to win after moving into formula 3 series as well as a win in his rookie year of the GP2 series in 2009 (now the equivalent to formula 2).

In 2010, he made his formula one debut at the Bahrain Grand Prix with Williams but was unfortunately replaced at the end of the season. Force India signed him as a reserve driver before promoting him to a full-time seat in 2012. 2013 saw a quick switch to the Sauber team before returning to Force India the following year. In 2017, he moved to Renault but was again replaced at the end of the 2019 season. Between 2020 and 2022, Hulkenburg was a reserve driver for Force India (Renamed as Racing Point and now called Aston Martin). In 2023, he returned as a full-time driver for Haas for 2 years before making the switch to Stake/Sauber in 2025.

He now holds 608 career points in formula one and sits 9^th in the current driver standings. In 2025, Nico signed a multi-year contract when joining Sauber/Stake which will see him keep his seat when Audi takes over the team from 2026. Audi announced its entry into the formula one series in 2022 saying “Motorsport is an integral part of Audi’s DNA. Formula 1 is both a global stage for our brand and a highly challenging development laboratory”.  It will be Jonathan Wheatley (previously Red Bull’s sporting director) who will be the Team Principle to Audi. Fans saw him embracing the German driver after his podium finish. Rookie driver and F2 champion Bortelleto will drive alongside Hulkenburg as they try to bring the team back to the top of the standings.

After a rough few years, it was a heart-warming scene to see the Swiss team celebrate their third position and after 15 years in formula one and a turbulent career, it was a joyous relief to see Nico Hulkenburg stand on the podium alongside the two championship contenders Piastri and Norris.