Hulkenberg: A world champion in waiting

November 6, 2010. Nico Hulkenberg turns in the lap of the season in qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix. On slicks on a drying track, having already posted one lap that would prove good enough for pole position, he sets a time more than a second faster than Sebastian Vettel.

It was Williams's first pole for over five years and proof, if any were needed, that the stellar reputation the young German brought into F1 was justified.

November 14, 2010. After outscoring his veteran team-mate Rubens Barrichello 20 points to 18 in the final eight races of the season, Hulkenberg sits on a bench in the middle of the Yas Marina paddock less than two hours after the end of the season finale and is told by Williams chairman Adam Parr that he is out. A victim of financial circumstances, Williams needs an influx of money and it isn't long before GP2 champion Pastor Maldonado - a worthy F1 driver but one whom Hulkenberg comfortably beat when they were team-mates in 2009 - signed up to take his place.

The 23-year-old German received the news too late to find the race seat that his talents deserve, so is now keeping himself F1 sharp with outings in Friday's first free practice session as Force India's reserve driver.

After that starring role in Brazil, that's pretty hard to take for a driver of whom Frank Williams said - not without basis - that "he'll win the world championship in F1."

"It's very difficult, especially the moment that you have to put your helmet away after Friday morning and know it's over," says Hulkenberg. "Then you have to stick around for two-and-a-half days, so it's pretty tough.

"But we are making the most of the situation. I'm happy that Force India picked me up and driving on a Friday morning is better than not driving at all. You can get to grips with the Pirelli tyres, the adjustable rear wing and KERS - it would be a lot worse to be stuck at home watching TV."

Hulkenberg had the upper hand on Maldonado as ART team-mates in GP2 © LAT

Hulkenberg doesn't blame Williams for its decision to take a pay driver - a term that Parr dislikes but there's no disputing that the financial package was key to Maldonado getting the seat - and accepts that his old team-mate ("a nice guy") is worthy of an F1 shot. But the lack of openness from the team left him with little chance to find an alternative berth.

There surely would have been more teams interested in his services had he not been widely expected to stay on at Williams until relatively late in the year, with talk of his being dropped not arising until around the time of the Singapore Grand Prix. Certainly, his manager Willi Weber would have had a bigger chance of keeping him on the grid and in a decent car, with a switch to the likes of HRT seen as a blind alley.

"During the second half of the year, I got stronger and stronger and had some good results," says Hulkenberg. "I got positive feedback and there were no thoughts of them saying that I was going to lose my seat. They were always happy and optimistic about my performances.

"But given the situation and timing of losing three or four big sponsors, they needed money. If you have to take a pay driver, fair enough because you need money to go racing. But I am a bit unhappy with the way it went because they always said that they were happy and kept it open for so long - then right on Sunday night after the race they told me I lost my seat.

"It's a very strange way to do it. I can understand if a team needs a pay driver, but the way it all happened was a bit unfortunate and I'm not so happy about being the unlucky guy to lose out!

"You cannot say for sure that if I had known earlier I would have had a seat. It's impossible to tell, but we could have pushed harder. Maybe a race seat would have been the result or maybe not, but it would not have been a bad thing."

His reduced role means that the Brazil performance is vital in keeping him on the radar of the people that matter. In a sport of short memories, that serves as a gold star on his CV as teams evaluate the options for 2012. You can see the appeal of Hulkenberg, especially with the chances of Robert Kubica being able to return not looking overly promising, meaning that the sport could be missing one driver of undoubted world championship calibre. If you're looking for a future world champion, Hulkenberg will show up on the radar.

Beating both Red Bulls to Interlagos pole was a highlight of Hulkenberg's Williams year © LAT

"It's very important," says Hulkenberg of his Brazil pole. "If you have midfield results and score some points, it's nice, but people want to see big highlights. Brazil was a highlight, although there were a lot of strong races. Without that pole, I think I would still be here, but it does help.

"The lap was spot on. There was nothing more in it. In the circumstances, that was the perfect lap.

"I was very much aware of the fact that the bad start to the year made it hard to make a big impact, and it probably took until Canada for the knot to open up. As well as the team's philosophy changing there, if you look at my history, it always took me a few races to get up to speed, to settle down and to get comfortable in Formula 3 and GP2.

"There is a lot of media attention in F1, people watch you closely and you have to be careful what you say. Plus, the car was very difficult in the beginning and it was tough against Rubens, who had huge experience and was very good at putting a lap together.

"Race-speed wise, I was pretty much up to speed with him at the start, maybe a little behind but not much. You realise that it's a bit disappointing for people who expect more from you, but we knew that if we focused on our job, we could beat the other side of the garage and that happened more and more towards the end of the year."

Once the European season had ended, the paddock talk started about Hulkenberg's seat being far from safe, with Maldonado's name cropping up as the most likely replacement. Having heard the rumours and read the news stories, it didn't come as a complete surprise to be dropped, and the attention quickly switched to finding a berth for 2011. But with the top six teams in the championship seemingly off limits, options were very restricted.

A Force India race seat was not completely out of the question. The team had long since resolved to run Paul di Resta, who had Hulkenberg's reserve driver role last year, although there was the possibility that Adrian Sutil would either move on or be replaced - with team principal Vijay Mallya apparently less than impressed with is long-term driver's desire to leave.

The deal with the Silverstone-based team extends beyond the end of this year and it's not out of the question that Hulkenberg will have a race seat there in 2012. And there are plenty of other teams keeping him in their thoughts as well.

Why? Simply because Hulkenberg is too good to ignore. He is fast, intelligent, consistent and, according to many who have worked closely with him throughout his career, shows all of the signs of being at the very least a grand prix winner.

Matching up against Barrichello in a midfield car during your debut season and with the testing ban in place, his performance was more impressive than many gave him credit for. His ability hasn't gone unnoticed in Force India circles either, so there's no question that he will be on the radar for a seat there next year - perhaps even alongside fellow former F3 Euro Series champion di Resta.

Hulkenberg is smiling about his Force India reserve role © LAT

"I am looking for Force India for the future," he says. "I'm with the team and I would be happy to race for them next year. But you always have to be open-minded to see what comes up.

"Obviously, most of the teams have a reserve driver and Force India were looking for one at the end of the year. I have one year of experience so if something happened to one of these guys I could step in and do a good job straight away. By them giving me the chance of driving on Friday, I can stay sharp and it will help also for the future if they are going to sign me for next year."

While a move from Williams to Force India feels like a step backwards (and a step down from race to reserve drive is clearly so) it's worth noting that only one point separated the two outfits last year and Hulkenberg's current team has had a stronger start to the season.

"Given that it's a smaller team, last year they did a very good job especially if you think back to how competitive they were at the beginning of the year. In Malaysia, Hamilton couldn't pass Adrian.

"But working wise there is not too much difference between the teams. Budget-wise, I'm not sure, I don't know the exact numbers but it's a bit of a smaller team. We've had a tough start of this year, not being as competitive as the team would have liked, but we have some good stuff coming.

"At least the car is reliable. The speed isn't there, we need to improve clearly to be able to score points from our own performance. We need to wait another few grands prix until we get our changes on the car. Then we should be in a better position."

For now, Hulkenberg's contribution to the team's success is limited. In China, he had only 20 laps during FP1 and it's far harder to make a big impact as a third driver than it used to be half-a-decade or so ago. Tyres are restricted and track conditions are far from ideal, meaning that headline-grabbing laptimes are off the agenda.

"It is difficult to make an impression," says Hulkenberg. "The team sees the data and knows what I am doing so they can judge what the job I'm doing is.

"But to set a benchmark or reference time to impress people is quite difficult with only one practice session. The time to impress is qualifying and the race, but I'm not doing that."

Yet that is Hulkenberg's lot for the time being. Right now, he knows the priority is to get back into a race seat next year, and few doubt that, should there be an unexpected opening during the season, he will be high on the list. Indeed, had Vitaly Petrov been more experienced, it's likely that Renault would have pushed hard to prise him away from Force India, as a replacement for the injured Robert Kubica.

By rights, he should be in a good seat. Chances are, he will be in the future. But despite losing a chunk of the momentum that he has built up since leaping to prominence in A1GP, he's not dwelling on what might, or even should, have been.

"You can think about it as much as you like, but you are not going to change it," he concludes. "It's sad, it's frustrating, but it is what it is and I just have to get on with it and not get depressed about it.

"If I got down, my confidence and performance might go down. It's hard to get used to it and I don't want to get used to it but I have to make the most of it. If you sit in the corner and cry all day, it doesn't get you back into a seat."

Hulkenberg will be back. He's too good not to be in a race seat. The only questions is, where?