Hülkenberg shrugs at Marko’s ‘what-if’ Red Bull tale: “I’m not the dreamer type”
Nico Hülkenberg didn’t blink. Asked in Qatar about Helmut Marko’s revelation that he was neck-and-neck with Sergio Pérez for a Red Bull seat back in 2021, the Sauber driver gave it the most Nico answer imaginable: thanks, but no daydreams.
“Not really, because I’m not really the dreamer type,” he said when the scenario of partnering Max Verstappen was put to him. “It would be different, but it didn’t happen. I had a few close misses, but at the end of the day, they don’t matter. I am where I am and what happened, happened.”
Marko, no longer on Red Bull’s payroll but still never far from a microphone, had earlier this year lifted the lid on how close Hülkenberg came to a shot alongside Verstappen for 2021. In his telling, it was essentially Pérez versus Hülkenberg — and Pérez’s win in Bahrain late in 2020 tipped the scales. The Mexican went on to win five races across four seasons with Red Bull before leaving at the end of 2024 after his form cratered again.
With some distance, Marko even hinted the team might’ve taken the wrong turn. He suggested Hülkenberg, often fast but scruffy a decade ago, has hardened into a cleaner operator with age — and that’s part of why he’s locked down a plum deal for the Audi era.
Hülkenberg, now 38, isn’t biting. He’s not interested in polishing a sliding-doors story now that his own long game is finally paying off. Since returning to the grid full-time, first with Haas and now with Sauber, he’s put together the kind of consistent, crafty Sundays that used to be overshadowed by rotten timing and rotten machinery. He ticked off that overdue first F1 podium at the 2025 British Grand Prix — a moment that felt like a receipt — and he’ll carry real momentum into 2026 when Sauber becomes Audi. Asked how close that Red Bull deal ever truly was, he kept it dry: “Well, not close enough, obviously.”
There’s an irony in all this. The “nearly” man of F1 — 181 starts before that maiden podium, if you’re keeping score — has ended up in a position that suits him better than playing second fiddle to Verstappen ever would have. Red Bull is a machine with one driver as its reference and gravity well. Audi will be a work in progress that needs grown-up feedback and the patience to build, brick by brick. If you’ve watched Hülkenberg measure out weekends in tenths and tyre life, you can see why Ingolstadt wanted him.
And what of Red Bull? There’s another new chapter opening there too. Verstappen is paired with Isack Hadjar this season, the French rookie stepping up after an eye-catching debut year with Racing Bulls. It’s a bold call — very Red Bull — and a reminder that in that universe, hindsight is a luxury but turnover is a feature.
Still, Marko’s retroactive musings do underline a point the paddock quietly suspected for years: Hülkenberg’s talent was never the question. Opportunity was. He missed out when his stock was hot, then lost prime years to a shrinking midfield and stop‑start cameos. But 2025 has felt different. The car’s not a world-beater, yet Hülkenberg’s Sundays have turned pragmatic, opportunistic, and — finally — rewarded. The podium at Silverstone didn’t just scratch an itch; it reframed a career that’s threatened to be defined by the wait.
He’ll tell you he’s not big on “what ifs.” Fair enough. The one in front of him — Audi’s factory leap — is concrete. He and Gabriel Bortoleto will spearhead that programme from 2026, and Hülkenberg sounds exactly as excited as he ever gets: low-key, unsentimental, and already looking for the next tenth.
So yes, there was a world where Nico Hülkenberg walked into Milton Keynes in 2021. In this one, he walks into Ingolstadt instead, finally with momentum and a project with his name all over it. For a driver who’s made a career of holding his nerve, that might be the better story anyway.
