Nico Hulkenberg has always been one of Formula 1’s best qualifiers on the grid, having only been beaten twice by his teammate in nine full seasons.
The German driver announced his arrival in F1 when he qualified on pole for the 2010 Brazilian Grand Prix in an inferior Williams during changeable conditions.
This ability to extract the most out of a car throughout a single lap is one of his main strengths as a driver, with long-time Sauber sporting director Beat Zehnder branding him a ‘madness qualifier’ when interviewed on the Formel1.de podcast.
Now his race engineer at Haas, Gary Gannon, has lifted the lid on how he can put together laps during one of the most intensive sessions of an F1 weekend in an interview with Motorsport-Total.
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F1 race engineer explains Nico Hulkenberg ‘natural ability’ in qualifying
Gannon has worked with Hulkenberg – who has scored 536 points in his F1 career – since he joined Haas in 2023, and has observed what makes his qualifying performances among some of the best on the grid.
“Somehow he manages not to build up any pressure that he has to be perfect,” said Gannon.
“His natural ability is that he finds an optimal performance and driving style for his own car, maybe quicker than some other drivers. So his lap in the second Q2 run will be very good, a very clean lap in which he already gets the best out of the car.”
“In Q3, people with faster cars will then get to the same level, and we will slide down in order. So it’s almost as if Nico can bring the car to its peak performance faster and make fewer mistakes in qualifying.
“This means that our car performs above average, especially in Q2, compared to the others. So it’s about not stressing yourself and getting a good, clean round very quickly, faster than others.”
Nico Hulkenberg leads head-to-head
Hulkenberg currently leads the qualifying head-to-head against teammate Kevin Magnussen, with the German now ahead by 6-3 out of the nine races so far and 4-0 on appearances in Q3.
His highest qualifying position this year is 9th on the grid at the Miami Grand Prix, while he managed to out-qualify Sergio Perez at Imola.
He has shown what Haas is missing out on when he prepares to make the switch back to Sauber in 2025, in anticipation of Audi’s arrival in 2026.
It is expected that Ferrari’s protege, Oliver Bearman, will replace the 36-year-old. He will appear with the team instead of Hulkenberg during the first practice session for the Spanish Grand Prix.
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