A tough season taught a lot of lessons - Nico Hulkenberg
Although he entered the Formula One caravan with great confidence and high spirits, Nico Hulkenberg finally admits that his rookie season with the sport has been far tougher than he imagined.
The German entered the series at the start of the 2010 season with a sparkling record of being A1GP, Formula 3 and GP2 champion. Although the driver had immense confidence in his driving skills and has proved his potential several times on the track earlier
as well, yet he believes that the series is much more demanding than any other on the globe.
The driver met an array of problems this season as he drove with the struggling Williams Team, alongside the Formula One veteran, Rubens Barrichello. The driver drifted through the first part of the season as a low profiled, unnoticed entrant and was overshadowed
by Barrichello. However, the latter half of the season saw the true potential of the driver and finally the second last race of the season, the Brazilian Grand Prix, saw him do wonders on the track as he bagged the first pole position of his career at in a
very uncompetitive Williams car.
Now, as his debut season has wrapped up, the 23-year-old told his fans that he does not see the year as an ideal one. He believes that he could have done far better admitting that he failed to live up to his own expectations.
The young German exclaimed, “The low point was in Shanghai and Istanbul where we weren’t competitive at all. I realised quickly through my team-mate Rubens Barrichello how important it is to have experience in this sport. It is not easy to get into Formula
1 nowadays. Now I know that I might have said too much at the beginning of the season.”
The driver further confessed that the time he spent with A1, GP2 and the F3 series were far better than he actually expected and that made him very confident. The 2009 season with GP2 was wonderful for the young lad. He had everything perfectly under control
for him as the team mates were always over shadowed by his performance, he managed to win a lot of races and finally he was also successful in bagging the championship gloriously. With all the triumphs trailing behind him, the driver entered the highest ranking
series of auto sport world in great spirits.
Although the driver went through just seven days of testing before he entered the first race of Formula One, the season opener in Bahrain, he was hopeful that all things would go nicely. However, as he recalls his season now, he exclaims, "It was quite difficult
to understand the tyres, how to bring the brakes to temperature and how to get a feeling for the perfect set-up and many more difficulties every rookie has to face. Our car was quite difficult to drive, especially in these first eight races and I was not able
to handle it compared to Rubens who has 18 years of experience in Formula 1.”
All through the season, the rookie’s teammate has looked far stronger than him and Hulkenberg accepts that Barrichello was a very tough match for him, but then of course that is understood to everyone. The Brazilian is one of the oldest drivers on the grid
and has witnessed a lot of ups and downs with the sport.
Finally, Hulkenberg expressed that despite of all the ills and odds of the season it was a great experience driving alongside Barrichello, who is more than just an experienced driver. He believes that the lessons that he has learnt from the 38-year-old will
help him all through his career and he is thankful to the team for providing him this opportunity.
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