When Nico Hülkenberg lined up for his debut race at the 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix as a highly rated German rookie he couldn’t possible have guessed he would have to wait 5593 days for his first podium appearance.
It was years ago he moved to the top of the undesirable leaderboard of most grand prix starts without standing on the podium, and it quickly became the story that dogged Hülkenberg for years.
At one stage it appeared he was destined to retire from Formula 1 without ever having stood on the podium, with the German squeezed out of the sport at the end of 2019 before making his comeback with Haas in 2023.
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A podium seemed no more likely racing among the backmarkers, but at the 239th time of asking, Hülkenberg sensationally threw those shackles aside by finishing third at this year’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
It’s by far the longest wait for any driver in Formula 1 history, the previous longest wait having been Carlos Sainz’s 101 starts.
The German veteran did it in style too, starting last on the grid — in this case 14th after six drivers started from pit lane — and nailing every key decision in the race to rocket up to third.
Lewis Hamilton loomed large in the second half of the race as his chief rival, the Ferrari driver surging up the order after strategy had cost him places.
But Hülkenberg was equal to the challenge to claim his first piece of Formula 1 silverware 15 years after his debut.
“It is surreal,” he told Sky Sports. “Massive blow yesterday [in qualifying] and then such a turn and swing of emotions from last on the grid.
“Thank you, Great Britain for this rain — the liquid sunshine, as they say. Obviously that made the result possible.
“I think we really hit the nail on the head today, made all the right calls at exactly the right moments. We stayed clean and made no mistakes.”
In triumph, Hulkenberg lifted the third-place podium which was made out of LEGO.
Second-place Oscar Piastri couldn’t help but point out the amusing detail during the post-race press conference.
He joked: “I also have a question for Nico. How does it feel after 15 years of F1 to get a podium (trophy) that’s made out of LEGO that you can just pull apart?”
Hulkenberg replied: “I love LEGO. My daughter can play with it now. A bit of silver or gold would’ve been nice too but I won’t complain.”
The result was significant for Sauber as much as Hülkenberg.
The podium is the team’s first in 13 years, dating back to Kamui Kobayashi’s third-place finish at the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix.
More than that, however, is that Hülkenberg’s 15 points rocketed Sauber from ninth to sixth in the championship, where it’s not only 18 points shy of Williams for fifth.
“It feels like we’re going in the right direction now,” team principal Jonathan Wheatley told Sky Sports. “What a performance. I’m so pleased.”
The fourth scoring weekend in a row, it’s a massive boost to the team that started the year looking nailed on for last in the championship on the eve Audi’s much-anticipated 2026 arrival.
While Sauber is a long way from where Audi will want to be in the medium term, these strong signs of progress promise the German marque that the road to the front won’t be as arduous as it looked in the last two years.