Nico Hülkenberg – test driver for Williams in 2008!!

It all came as a surprise, though I should have expected this to happen

So according SPORT BILD online and Auto Motor und Sport, the 20-year German driver Nico Hulkenberg will soon become the test driver for Williams-Toyota. His manager Willi Weber, who is also the manager of Michael Schumacher, told SPORT BILD that the contract would be officially signed by Christmas.

Obviously this is one of the best Christmas presents for the rising star from Emmerich am Rein. He gained his fame by his spetacular drive in A1GP 06-07 Season. He was consistent, and of course, extremely fast. After moving to Formula 3 euroseries, he struggled a little bit but soon got back his speed. He didn’t get the final title but we can’t ignore that he scored more scores than all the other drivers in the second half of the season. As a plus, he also won the Master race. But unfortunately, he didn’t do a good job in Macau. He is now the #1 driver for ART next year, which is managed by, as I mentioned in a previous post, Nicolas Todt.

I actually found this piece of news when I was google-ing his news within the recent 24 hours. This is where I love google most You can search for the updates within a day and really keep up with your interest. And it seemed expect adrivo no other major F1 websites have any response yet. All this looked quite similar to how I found that Nico was testing for Williams last Monday. Autosport didn’t put this news on until hours after I got the news from google.com:) So this is what you can expect, in the first hour you found the news, there were <100 websites on google. But one day after, the number becomes 500 and two days after, you have >1000 websites by your hand so you simply give up reading them all… Maybe if autosport.com need a person in finding news and rumors, they should consider me I would definitely love to take the job!!

So back to Nico, it’s mentioned in the original SPORT BILD post that “even the Williams engineers were impressed by his detailed description of the car after driving”. Why I feel I see another Michael Schumacher growing up?? lol…

However, he will not be the reserve driver for Williams. His main focus will still be the champion of F3 euroseries. I have all my faith in him that he can get the title next year. But will he still come to Macau? I’m not so sure then… But allow me to make a wish and wish I can see him again in Macau~

I’m not being too optimistic but I seriously believe that he will become an official driver in 2009. For Williams? Maybe but he may have a bunch of other choices. If Alonso do leave Renault for Ferrari in 2009, maybe he can consider Renault? I’m sure Willi Weber can get it done during a lunch with Briatore. Anyway I just want him to be in the best team because I am so sure that he will be the next WDC!

One funny thing here is what BMW is thinking about right now. Remember the saturday before Jerez test when BMW announced that they would test Villa and Asmer? Theissen said that they would not test Nico because they didn’t want him to have a year busy hopping between F3 and F1 test. But apparently this was not how our future world beater expected for himself. He still went to Jerez and tested for Williams. I was kind of confused then because for all the time I thought he was linked with BMW. I even saw a picture of Theissen talking with him after the Macau race (I was only one or two minutes late to enter the pitlane and capture the scene myself…). But how about now? The vastly talented Nico went to Jerez, beated Asmer and Villa on track nicely and now got a test driver contract! I’m not saying Asmer and Villa are lame drivers but they simply do not have the same potent as Nico. Just see how fast he adapted in a new race series every time. It pretty much looks like he can achieve the extreme as soon as he jumped in a new car.

Wow… seems I’ve prasied this dude too much I’m just excited to see another German driver entering Formula One. With Willi Weber and Nicolas Todt, I am very confident that Nico can get a chance for the best of the best. The only thing left is his own passion and determination in this sport. So work hard and try your best, dear Nico… and ENJOY YOUR CHRISTMAS PRESENT!!