Veteran issues surprise verdict: F1 2025 ‘harder’ than when I started

Nico Hulkenberg believes rookies in F1 2025 face a more daunting task to adjust than when he arrived on the grid in 2010.

Hulkenberg made his debut as an F1 driver in 2010, stepping up to Williams’ driver line-up after serving as the team’s reserve while winning the GP2 (now F2) title the previous season.

Nico Hulkenberg shares how F1 has changed since 2010

Hulkenberg appeared beside two drivers in their first full seasons of Formula 1 for a press conference ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, with the Sauber driver joined by Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson and Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli.

Praising the job all the rookies are doing this season, and singling out Isack Hadjar for his “very good run” as the French driver has become the top-scoring rookie during the first 10 race weekends of F1 2025, Hulkenberg said he believes Formula 1 of today represents a very different challenge compared to 2010.

“F1 has grown a lot. It’s a much bigger stage,” Hulkenberg said.

“There’s more attention, more screening going on. So I think on that side, it’s harder when you come in now, with how the sport has developed and grown.

“It was a bit smaller and a bit more chilled back then, not so international, let’s say.”

Much of that growth has come about as a result of the sale of Formula 1 to American entertainment company Liberty Media, which has embraced social media and put F1 out front and centre with the general public by way of the revolutionary sports docu-drama series Drive to Survive on Netflix.

It was a move that elevated F1 from hugely popular but somewhat niche to a sport now in the mainstream. With such prominence, F1 drivers are almost all superstar names and celebrities, while the team bosses enjoy almost the same level of limelight.

This celebrity also comes with the flipside of far greater public scrutiny, meaning that a driver not hitting their stride immediately, as Lawson did with his struggles at Red Bull early this year, can be put under the microscope and subjected to the whims of public opinion far more than in Hulkenberg’s rookie season.

15 years on from that season, the German driver explained that, in his time, the cars and the options available in running them offered far greater technical freedom.

“On the technical side, back then it was a lot more open. You had a lot more options on set-up—even gear ratios, weight distribution,” he said.

“There were more things to play with, to understand, and to get your head around. So maybe there was another level of complexity back in the day.”

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But which are the greater challenge for the drivers – the lighter, more nimble but nervous cars of yesteryear, or the planted, weighty, downforce of today’s much quicker machines?

“I’m not sure, to be honest,” he said.

“Some moments I think yes, some moments absolutely not. These cars are really quick. There’s a lot of downforce. Sometimes it feels very safe.

“If you look at a lot of the races, we don’t have that many incidents nowadays—not many yellow flags.

“Or if there’s an incident, it’s usually a big one because these cars snap and it usually goes in a big way. Back then in 2010, it was different in a way. It’s hard to explain.

“It was smaller, lighter, different dynamic.”

Kimi Antonelli, sitting alongside Hulkenberg, was clearly enthused by the German’s answers and said he would “love to try” a 2010-spec machine as the cars looked “super-agile” with lots of movement going into the corners.

“These [2025] cars, as Nico said, have a lot of downforce and behaviour,” he said.

“I feel like the downforce is playing such a big role in these cars. Back then, there was a bit less downforce, and much smaller cars.

“I went not long ago to the Mercedes Heritage and saw all the cars. The difference in size between the 2010 and this year’s car—it’s massive. But I would definitely love to try one, also to hear the V8. I think that was nice as well.”

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