The AT&T Williams team commenced a three day test at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya on Thursday, where the team’s official test driver, Nico Hulkenberg, opened the first day of running in the FW30.
Joined by representatives from the rest of the Formula One grid bar Force India, Nico worked through a set-up programme and full race distance in preparation for the forthcoming European rounds in France and the UK. At the end of the day he had set the seventh fastest time of the day with a 1:23.619 on lap 85 out of 112.
“Nico Hulkenberg was driving for us today on day one at Barcelona,” said Dickie Stanford, Test Team Manager. “He concentrated on race set-ups in the morning and then moved on to a race distance this afternoon. We completed 112 laps with no problems before rain stopped play an hour before the end of the session. Nico Rosberg joins the test tomorrow and will focus on preparation work for Magny-Cours.”
Nicolas “Nico” Hülkenberg History:
Hülkenberg made his karting debut in 1997, at the age of 10. In 2002 he was German Junior Karting Champion and the following year he won the German Kart Championship.
2005 saw his debut in German Formula BMW. His first season was a very successful one, with Hülkenberg dominating the championship and winning the title comfortably. He finished first in the Formula BMW world final but was stripped of the win after it was claimed he had brake-tested his rivals during a safety car period.
Hülkenberg moved up to Formula 3 for 2006, winning one round in the German championship. He also joined the German A1 Grand Prix team for the 2006-07 season. Nine wins in his rookie season made him the most successful driver in A1GP history. It meant he almost single-handedly won Germany the championship with 128 points, 35 more than Team New Zealand.
For 2007 he switched to the F3 Euroseries with the ASM team that had taken Lewis Hamilton and Paul di Resta to the last two championships. His first win came at the Norisring from 18th on the grid, he won again in the rain at Zandvoort and added a third at the Nürburgring. But he ran into trouble at Magny-Cours, being penalised in qualifying for passing the chequered flag twice, and crashing into Filip Salaquarda in the race.
He won the (non-championship) Ultimate Masters of Formula 3 race at Zolder from team mate (and F3 Euroseries championship leader) Romain Grosjean after the Swiss stalled at the start.
Hülkenberg is currently managed by Willi Weber, the long-time manager of Michael Schumacher. Weber has gone on record saying that Hülkenberg would be ready for Formula One by 2008. He has also praised Hülkenberg as an “unbelievable talent” and says he reminds him of Schumacher as a young driver.
Hülkenberg completed a Formula One test in 2007. Willi Weber confirmed that he was in contact with Renault boss Flavio Briatore about organizing a first F1 test for the young German, but he finally got his chance to test for an F1 team in December 4, 2007; when he was given a seat by Williams at Jerez. The two-day test went well. He outpaced Kazuki Nakajima, the official driver for Williams-Toyota next year, on the first day and was only 0.4 seconds slower than Nico Rosberg.
Technorati Tags: F1 Rage, Force India, Formula One, Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton, Magny-Cours, Nico Hulkenberg, Nico Rosberg
Tags: F1 Rage, Force India, Formula One, Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton, Magny-Cours, Nico Hulkenberg, Nico Rosberg
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