Ross Brawn has offered a neat reminder of how close Formula 1 can come to taking a completely different path, revealing that Nico Hülkenberg was effectively Mercedes’ Plan B for 2013 while the team tried to prise Lewis Hamilton away from McLaren.
In Brawn’s telling, the now-famous Hamilton switch wasn’t some straightforward power move that everyone could see coming a mile off. It was a deal that wobbled, dragged, and required Mercedes to keep another credible option warm in case the whole thing fell apart.
“When I was at Mercedes, we almost employed Nico because we didn’t know what the situation was with Lewis for 2013,” Brawn said in comments published by Formula 1. “We were having a challenging time closing that [Hamilton] deal and Nico was on standby. He behaved in a very mature way during those discussions.”
That single detail — Hülkenberg waiting in the wings — is the sort of footnote that changes how you view a pivotal moment. At the time, Mercedes wasn’t yet the sport’s obvious destination. The team had taken over Brawn GP in 2010 and, by the end of 2012, had only managed one win in that era. Hamilton leaving McLaren, the team with which he’d won his 2008 title and spent his entire F1 career, was widely treated as a gamble.
With hindsight, it reads like one of the great career calls in modern sport. Hamilton arrived, stuck it out through a transitional year, and then when the competitive landscape shifted from 2014 onwards he became the centrepiece of an era: six titles in seven seasons between 2014 and 2020, drawing him level with Michael Schumacher’s record seven championships.
But Brawn’s admission frames just how conditional the whole thing felt from inside the Mercedes bubble. The team knew it needed to replace Michael Schumacher for 2013. It also knew Hamilton was the headline target. Yet it wasn’t prepared to be left exposed if Hamilton decided to stay put — and that’s where Hülkenberg came in.
“I made it as transparent as possible what the situation was,” Brawn added, “that there was a chance [of a Mercedes deal], but it depended on what Lewis decided to do in the end.
“When Lewis did sign with us, we managed to sort things out with Nico that we couldn’t go ahead. But I was quite looking forward to working with him because I think he’s a great driver.”
It’s easy to forget now, but Hülkenberg in 2012 was still viewed in paddock circles as a driver on the edge of something big. He’d already shown flashes that suggested genuine top-level pedigree — the kind of speed that makes teams think they can mould him into a long-term leader. Brawn clearly saw enough to be comfortable with the idea of pairing him with Nico Rosberg in an all-German Mercedes line-up.
Of course, that isn’t the way the sport went. Hamilton signed, Rosberg stayed, and the internal dynamic that followed ended up defining the early years of Mercedes’ dominance — right through to Rosberg’s title win in 2016 and his immediate retirement at the end of that season.
For Hülkenberg, the near-miss at Mercedes became one of several moments that hinted at a different career arc. He headed to Sauber for 2013 instead, and while he carved out a reputation as a quick, technically strong operator, F1 never quite handed him the sort of platform his ability seemed to merit for long stretches. He even found himself without a permanent seat between 2020 and 2022 after being dropped by Renault.
There were still highlights outside the grand prix paddock — most notably his Le Mans 24 Hours victory with Porsche in 2015 — but the F1 story stubbornly refused to deliver the signature result. Until it finally did.
At Silverstone last season, Hülkenberg secured his first grand prix podium on what was his 239th start, finishing third for Sauber. It was the kind of statistic that had become a running gag over the years — until it wasn’t funny anymore, because the moment arrived and it was actually happening.
Brawn, unsurprisingly, enjoyed seeing it as much as anyone.
“It was lovely to see,” he said. “He’s very, very mature and very balanced. He’s had a great career. It’s hard to imagine that Silverstone was his first podium after so long and after some great performances and great drives.
“That outcome was lovely to see and I was particularly pleased given that I know him fairly well.”
There’s something quietly revealing in Brawn’s tone about both drivers. He talks about Hamilton’s deal as difficult to close — not inevitable — and he talks about Hülkenberg with the sort of respect usually reserved for drivers who never quite got the car their talent demanded. Mercedes’ history in the modern era is so dominated by what happened after 2013 that it can mask how many moving parts had to line up before it all began.
And it leaves you with the obvious “what if?” lingering in the background: a Mercedes future built around Rosberg and Hülkenberg, and Hamilton staying at McLaren. Not because it would’ve been better or worse — just because it’s proof that the sport’s biggest turning points often hinge on the kind of negotiations that, at the time, feel anything but certain.
