Born and raised in Emmerich am Rhein, Hülkenberg began competitive kart racing aged 10, winning several national titles before graduating to junior formulae in 2005.

[1] Outside of Formula One, Hülkenberg competed in two rounds of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship for Porsche, winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans at his first attempt.

A fifth win followed at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, allowing Hülkenberg to break the 100-point barrier, and eventually won the title by 25 points from Vitaly Petrov.

The two-day test was held at the Circuito de Jerez in Spain, and Hülkenberg outpaced Williams's driver Kazuki Nakajima, and set laptimes 0.4 seconds slower than Nico Rosberg.

At the second round in Australia, he was involved in a first-lap incident with Kamui Kobayashi, after the Japanese driver's front wing failed and sent him into the barrier, rebounding into the path of Hülkenberg.

On 6 November Hülkenberg gained his first Formula One pole position, by 1.049 seconds over Sebastian Vettel at the Brazilian Grand Prix in a rain-affected qualifying session.

[21] Hülkenberg qualified ninth for the Australian Grand Prix, six places ahead of di Resta, but his race ended on the first lap after picking up damage in a first-corner incident before retiring further round the course.

[23] Hülkenberg failed to start the Australian Grand Prix due to a leak in the fuel system of his Sauber C32; he had qualified eleventh for the race,[24] but was withdrawn for safety reasons.

He later finished fifth at the Malaysian Grand Prix, spending a large amount of time in fourth place, holding off Ferrari's Fernando Alonso before being overtaken.

In Hungary, mid-race, he suffered a big crash at turn one when his front wing detached and he drove over it, sending him slightly airborne and into the barriers, costing him a potential fourth place.

This was followed by five consecutive points finishes, including fourth at the 2016 Belgian Grand Prix, his best result of the season, when he was initially running second after the first lap but was eventually passed by the faster cars of Daniel Ricciardo and Lewis Hamilton.

He outqualified his teammate again in Brazil and was running fourth, but he picked up a puncture from debris on the track, following Kimi Räikkönen's crash, costing him a podium finish, and fell outside the points before recovering to seventh, fending off Daniel Ricciardo towards the end of the race.

He capped off his season in Abu Dhabi by outqualifying Pérez again to seventh place and finishing in the same position, having survived a collision with Max Verstappen on the first lap.

After the first lap of the race, Hülkenberg found himself in 3rd place, following the first corner collision and subsequent retirements of Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Räikkönen, Max Verstappen and the fast-starting McLaren of Fernando Alonso.

He looked set to take his long-awaited first podium finish in Formula 1, until Daniil Kvyat crashed and brought out the Safety Car and a blunder in strategy by Renault left him in 5th place.

He eventually got up to 4th place, before an oil leak brought about his retirement from the race, in which he succeeded Adrian Sutil to become the record holder for the most starts in Formula 1 without a podium finish.

Hülkenberg achieved his best ever result for Renault at his home grand prix in Germany with 5th place, overtaking Kevin Magnussen late on when the rain started to fall.

With Sainz finishing in 7th, this was the best team result for Renault in a race since they rejoined the sport in 2016, beating the 7th and 8th place the two drivers had achieved in Canada earlier in the year.

His season ended with two successive retirements due to high engine temperatures in Brazil and after being rolled over into the barriers by Romain Grosjean in Abu Dhabi.

[48] Hülkenberg started the season strongly, outqualifying new teammate Ricciardo at his home race, but an engine issue prevented him from reaching Q3, leaving him 11th.

[54] In the following race in Monaco, a chance of a points finish evaporated, when the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc hit Hülkenberg, while attempting an overtaking move, which the German labelled "too ambitious".

At the British Grand Prix, he recovered to a 10th-place finish, after he was hit by former teammate Sergio Pérez and his engine momentarily failing and going into 'limp mode', whilst also bemoaning the team's strategy.

A grid penalty meant he started 12th, and he fell even further back when he took evasive action to avoid collisions involving Verstappen, Räikkönen, Ricciardo and Stroll.

[62] In Italy, both Renaults had a very strong weekend, with Ricciardo and Hülkenberg qualifying 5th and 6th respectively, with both drivers moving up a place to finish 4th and 5th, after Sebastian Vettel spun out of contention.

[66] However, following a protest by rival constructor Racing Point, both Renault cars were disqualified for having a pre-set automated brake bias system that was deemed to be a driver aid, and thus illegal.

[78] He would later replace Stroll, for the Eifel Grand Prix after the Canadian had sat out of the final practice session due to feeling unwell before later testing positive for COVID-19 himself.

[84] In November 2022, Haas F1 Team announced that Hülkenberg had signed to drive for them in 2023, partnering Kevin Magnussen and replacing fellow German compatriot Mick Schumacher.

[106] Hülkenberg's triumph made him the first active Formula One driver to win at Le Mans since Johnny Herbert and Bertrand Gachot, who performed the same feat in 1991.

[109][110] Hülkenberg ultimately declined an opportunity to pursue a career in IndyCar with McLaren, stating that he was unwilling to race on ovals and that he found the Dallara DW12 to be significantly harder to drive physically than the Formula One cars he was used to.

2005  N. Rosberg 2006  L. Hamilton 2007  T. Glock 2008  G. Pantano 2009  N. Hülkenberg 2010  P. Maldonado 2011  R. Grosjean 2012  D. Valsecchi 2013  F. Leimer 2014  J. Palmer 2015  S. Vandoorne 2016  P. Gasly 2017  C. Leclerc 2018  G. Russell 2019  N. de Vries 2020  M. Schumacher 2021  O. Piastri 2022  F. Drugovich 2023  T. Pourchaire 2024  G. Bortoleto