Adrian Newey ruled out the German driver for a biomechanical reason: his torso was too long. Damon Hill revealed the anecdote that changed the Audi driver's history.
Nico Hülkenberg has contested 257 Grands Prix throughout his career, but he has never stood on the podium, and perhaps, in part, his anatomy is to blame. This was revealed by Damon Hill on the Undercat podcast, where he shared an unpublished anecdote about the moment the German was close to signing for Red Bull.
The 38 year old German has had a significant history with teams: he passed through Williams, Force India, Sauber, Renault, Racing Point, Aston Martin, Haas and Sauber, and currently races for Audi F1, the heir to the Swiss team, but his career could have been very different. On two occasions, Hülkenberg was close to making the jump to a top team.
The first was Ferrari, the German revealed that he had initial conversations with the Scuderia in 2013 to be Fernando Alonso's teammate from 2014 onwards, replacing Felipe Massa: "We felt we were very close to reaching an agreement, but in the end it just didn't get signed," Hülkenberg explained.
The second opportunity, and perhaps the most painful, was Red Bull, but this time the obstacle was neither economic nor sporting, but physical. Damon Hill recalled a conversation with Adrian Newey, the legendary chief engineer of the Austrian team: "I remember Adrian talked about Nico once, he asked me: 'What do you think of Hülkenberg?' I said: 'Well, he's pretty good,'" Hill recalled.
Newey's response was unexpected: "Yes, but the problem is that he's too tall from the waist up," replied the aerodynamics guru. Hill explained the reasoning: Newey took into account the impact of the driver's height on chassis design, a longer torso forces the seat position, center of gravity and weight distribution to be modified, critical elements for an engineer obsessed with technical perfection.
"In other words, Newey rejected the Hülkenberg option because of that, so I'm sorry, Nico, but there was really nothing you could do," Hill stated.
The anecdote reveals a little known aspect of Formula 1: a driver's biomechanics can be just as decisive as their talent. While Hülkenberg's overall height (1.84 m) is not exceptional for a driver, the proportion of his body, with a longer torso than usual, was enough for Newey to rule him out.
Hülkenberg, who currently races for Audi F1, is still looking for that elusive podium, but his story serves as a reminder that sometimes, a driver's fate is not decided only on the track, but in the proportions of his own body.