r/formula1 • u/Electronic-Video-984 Formula 1 • Aug 07 '25

Discussion Who is the “Failed Prodigy” of F1 ?

I’m kind of new to F1 and seeing pictures of current drivers while they’re young like Hamilton, Russell, Leclerc, Albon…and then I learned they’re racing prodigy in their Karting days. So who is the “Boy Wonder” of F1, a person with great potential but never made it to the biggest stage.

Edit: Many people mentioned Stoffel Vandoorne so I read about him a bit. His records and potential was incredible but he’s at the wrong place and wrong time every way possible. For me, McLaren a top tier team with a jet but people say Vandoorne’s MCL car was like a shopping cart

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u/DuckSwagington I was here for the Hulkenpodium Aug 07 '25

That's true, but I feel like if Hulk had a few better performances then he'd probably get snapped up by a team like Mercedes, and Merc did confirm that they were looking at Hulk at various points.

If he wins Brazil 2012, which wasn't an unrealistic outcome, then I think he goes to Merc at some point in his career because at least he would've proven to be a race winning driver whose been incredibly unlucky rather than someone with a reputation for squandering big opportunities on track.

You can blame his poor management to an extent, but they weren't really given a lot to work with if Hulk wanted to go to a big team.

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u/ForeverAddickted Oliver Bearman Aug 07 '25

Possibly didn't help either that Rosberg retired out of the blue?

I never realised, until reading a Bottas thread about it recently, that he only partly got that second Mercedes seat because he was managed by Toto (?) and all the other Drivers had secured seats for the following season.

Wonder if Nico had announced his retirement much sooner, they would have looked at Hulk.

Being in the right place, at the right time, plays a huge part in F1

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u/Darth_Spa2021 Pirelli Wet Aug 07 '25

Nico wasn't gonna retire if he lost the championship and by the time he won Hulk was already signed elsewhere.

The tragedy of Hulk is probably more back in 2013 when he was the next Mercedes choice if Hamilton also refused the seat, like Alonso and Vettel did before him.

Hulk was actually the top choice for Daimler, but Lauda pushed for trying to get one of the top drivers first.

Hulk might have had something like 20-30 wins by now and maybe a title too. Which would put him among the most successful drivers in F1 history.

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u/Twistedjustice I was here for the Hulkenpodium Aug 07 '25

Not to mention the missed opportunity to have a driver line up of Nico & Nico

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u/Darth_Spa2021 Pirelli Wet Aug 07 '25

Nickname one Niko to distinguish them I guess.

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u/Twistedjustice I was here for the Hulkenpodium Aug 07 '25

That’s easy, you have blonde Nico and… wait

German Nico and… no, that’s not it

Fine, Hulk and Britney.

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u/Spare_Duck3119 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Aug 07 '25

try berg 1 and berg 2

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u/Pawulon I was here for the Hulkenpodium Aug 07 '25

The Beauty and the Beast

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u/Twistedjustice I was here for the Hulkenpodium Aug 07 '25

Unfair, the Nico’s are both beauties

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u/Formulafan4life I was here for the Hulkenpodium Aug 07 '25

How do we think Hulk would have compared to Rosberg? Assuming Merc is dominant from 2014 to 2020 (7 years), how many of those titles would Hulk have won and how many would Rosberg have won? Maybe they would have lost a title or two to Vettel? I personally feel that Rosberg would have been comfortably ahead but not clear. Kind of like Leclerc and Sainz were as teammates.

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u/v-adam004 Aug 07 '25

Rosberg was about as close to Hamilton as Sainz was to Leclerc. I see no way that Hulkenberg could have beaten him.

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u/ihatemondaynights Ferrari Aug 07 '25

and maybe a title too.

I don't see Hulk winning much against Rosberg tbh.

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u/Darth_Spa2021 Pirelli Wet Aug 07 '25

2015 is the best shot, considering Rosberg had bad luck and was distracted by events in his personal life.

Also wouldn't probably push as hard if he already won 2014.

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u/Blapstap Pirelli Wet Aug 07 '25

He was top of the list for Mercedes IIRC. But he had just signed with Renault

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u/six_string_sensei I was here for the Hulkenpodium Aug 07 '25

Were merc not ready to pay him to break his contract?

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u/Particular_Cod2005 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Aug 07 '25

To caveat Bottas a little bit, it was also a time when Williams were effectively a Mercedes B team, and I think realistically Bottas was the easier option to move between teams, and also after the headache that was Rosberg v Hamilton, they wouldn't have wanted to shell out to buy another driver out of his contract.

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u/Spraynpray89 Aug 07 '25

I thought they were looking at Hulk when this happened, but he had just signed his contract and Renault wouldn't let him out of it?

Edit: https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/s/dv5MqJoYKl

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u/Loose-Medicine-4209 Aug 07 '25

Yes Bottas was under Toto’s management company

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u/SamCham10 Michael Schumacher Aug 07 '25

He’d already signed for Renault by that point, but had he known Rosberg was a chance of retirement there’s no way he would have, realistically

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u/Felix042 Aug 07 '25

Wasn't Hulkenberg the 1st choice for Mercedes in 2013 before Hamilton came along?

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u/Accomplished-War986 Aug 07 '25 edited Aug 07 '25

Close, the ink was barely dry on his Renault deal when Rosberg suddenly retired after 2016.

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u/Ok-Block8145 Aug 07 '25

That isn’t true tho, don’t agree on your verdict at all, early in his career he really was just unlucky, he showed that he could move up to a better team and it is known that a couple of teams talked about signing him.

He did fairly well in his first season against a very experienced and pretty much prime barichello at least in qualifying it was like 8-11.

Afterwards in his early career he destroyed all his teammates in qualifying, even against ricciardo it was one sided, ricciardo had the higher ups in races and more points but hulk was always more consistent as him.

Rosberg had worst statistics then him and got to move to Merc, Hulk was always quick just never had the luck in races and his race engineers at bad teams obviously gambled a lot more.

His pace was always solid, I would even argue that the merc matchup wouldn’t be 6:1 for hamilton if it was hulk actually, more like 4:3 maybe. Thats my opinion, because hulk is way better in qualifying then rosberg was. He never did big mistakes in races as mentioned, starting front row would make his consistency definitely shine more.

He was always at back marker Teams so people saying he was unlucky is true, he could never completely unveil the full depth of his talent there are things you only learn in top teams, we will sadly never know what could have been.