Nico Hulkenberg scored his first F1 podium at the British GP, after making his F1 debut in 2010.
The Sauber driver finished third at Silverstone, his maiden podium in F1 and highest finish in 239 race starts. His racing last podium was at the 24 hours of Le Mans where he won with Porsche in 2015.
In the post-race press conference, Hulkenberg told the media what it was like to be spraying champagne and celebrating after so long.
“Felt good. I still remembered how to do it. Used to do it a lot in the junior stuff and then had to wait for it quite a bit. But it just happened so quick, the race, and you’re still processing that. Then so many emotions, so many people coming at you, a lot of positivity, a lot of congratulations.
“At the moment [I’m] just happy, relieved. But like I said, it’s going to sink in more over the next few hours and the next few days, and I think I’ll feel the enjoyment even more in the week to come.”
Piastri’s Lego-themed question to his fellow podium sitter
Second place finisher Oscar Piastri also had a question for Hulkenberg- how does it feel after 15 years of F1 to get a trophy that’s made out of Lego that you can just pull apart?
The German driver had no complaints about the Lego trophies handed out on the British GP podium, which were made as part of F1’s partnership with Lego and to celebrate the 75th anniversary of F1.
“I love Lego! It’s good. My daughter can play with it too. You’ve always got to see the bright side. But, you know, a bit of silver or gold would have been nice too, but I won’t complain.”
Perfect pit-stop timings
With severe weather conditions and constantly changing track conditions, Hulkenberg benefitted from optimal pit-stop timings throughout the race.
“We pitted from inters to inters. Obviously, it was drying out. The inter was wearing down, the first set from the start, but the team said there’s some rain about. It actually changed within one or two laps from a pretty bright sky to dark clouds and I was just dropping back. I was really struggling with that first set. They said the rain is coming, so I just dived into the pits, to be honest, without thinking too much at the time and then went out and the rain started.
“It was really good timing. All the stops we made today, they could not have been better. We pitted at the perfect time every single time, which is very rare and difficult to do. But it’s just how it happened today, and we really hit that one on the head.“
Hulkenberg was stuck behind Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll for a lot of the race, but he wasn’t concerned with how this would affect his chance of a podium at Silverstone. The Canadian driver finished in P7 after running an impressive race, completing many laps in the top 5 but losing out to Alpine’s Pierre Gasly at the last moment.
“Behind Lance, he was quick. We had very similar pace, but then on that set of Intermediates, he eventually was just degging off a bit more than me when the track dried out. So, it just took a while to find a way through. But I wasn’t even really thinking about the podium there. We were running P5, I think P4 at the time, so it was already pretty good. I was just about keeping it going and making no mistakes.”
