With Nico Hulkenberg stepping up to the big time with Williams F1 this season, we look back to February last year when we caught up with the German race ace at the ART Grand Prix headquarters in France….

Here's the video for those of you adverse to reading, or you're welcome to read on!

How do you find driving for ART Grand Prix?

Well this is my, third year with ART now the French team um. Now I get on really well with them, in the beginning, when I first came in, in two thousand and seven and in the F3 it was a bit strange because I came from English people to French people. And it's a bit different mentality and the people are different so I had to get used to them. But once I got used to them eh, we get on very well and, and I really like the guys here and, and I feel very welcome and comfortable in the team now.

And compared to the other teams you've worked with, what’s the atmosphere like with the guys here?

I think they're pretty relaxed, they, they believe in hard work, they work really hard during winter and, and during the season of the races, but they also can, when the work is done, you know have fun and then eh relax, but eh. I think that's the way to do if you, if you're working very hard you also sometimes need to settle down and relax a little bit. And I think this is just eh, they have the good mix of it.

And getting into GP2, does this feel more professional, more intense?

Yeah GP2 feels a bit, a bit different to have the euro series to be honest, it's a bit more, feels a bit more organised and, cause you know in F3 you can go on yourself round the track and just go there, and maybe you're on you own. 00:02:13.08 And in GP2 the teams always go together and the, the catering is organised and everything is, is eh prepared, and in F3 this is also very well organised but it's just a bit a different feeling, and GP2 is, is one step further it's the last step before F1 so it feels a bit more eh, a bit higher.

Can you tell me a little bit about your relationship with Nikolas Todt, how do you guys get on with each other?

To be honest I didn't met him so often, I met him a couple of times and we had a little chat hi, how you doing? and I think he's alright but eh, there's not too much contact with him.

And what about Willi Weber?

I think Willi is a great support for me um, I really like him and even off track we have a great relation um, spend a lot of time together and it's very funny with him, he's joking a lot as well, but he's just relaxed because he has achieved a lot in his life and eh, so he's supporting him very well now.
And he's not giving me any extra pressure or, or making life hard for me, he's just a great support and then helps me where he can.

Regarding Formula 1 now, were you a big fan of your fellow countryman Michael Schumacher?

I think he's a great driver and eh, well he did a, a fantastic job in F1 obviously. When I was a small kid watching F1 I was for sure eh you know holding my fingers crossed for Michael and I was impressed by him and, and was looking up to him.

And in terms of his career, would you like to follow in his footsteps?

Well I don't like copying people, there's no second Michael Schumacher or like sometimes the media wants to put fettle in, in Michael’s footstep. But I think everybody's different, everybody has a, a different way a different character, different profile. So eh I want to be successful, if possible as Michael and, and winning it's what everybody wants. But eh, I just go my own way.

Obviously you're sitting here doing an interview now but, since you've made it into GP2 how much more attention do you have from the newspapers, the press, the TV?

It's not too bad to be honest, I did only races in GP2 Asia um. I don't know maybe there is more media coverage in the main series; I’m not sure about that. But eh, the difference is just after a GP2 race you have a press conference, which is not there in F2, but eh, apart from that it's pretty similar.

What work have you been doing with your engineers and the rest of the team in recent months, in preparation for the main GP2 series?

Well now today I’m here to, to do a seat fit, in the man series um, that always takes one or two days, because we need to do a proper cede and then adjust the belts, steering, pedals etceteras and that needs to fit really well because you need to be comfortable in the car. And then you like have debriefs of pre, previous eh events or you know look up to now in, in one and half weeks time we have our first test in Puerto Rico, so we discuss our test programme for then and track layouts and, and stuff like this.

And can you do any simulation stuff or is that mostly done on Play Station?

Um, well the team does simulation with gearbox ratios and, and setup. But for me um, I, I can’t do, do a simulation.

ART GP have had so much success is there a lot of pressure on you to win. Do you feel like they are really pushing you?

They're pushing me on the track when we do the data comparisons ART's really a team um, who works a lot on the driver and they want to get really the last tenth out of each driver, they want to be every corner must be perfect um. And I think that work on a driver is really important because sometimes you go round you have a circuit with fifteen corners.
And there’s one corner which for sure you team mate is a bit quicker, or where you can just gain by breaking a bit similar, a bit different or, just having a bit, different lines, and um. That’s what they really eh, really you know press out of the driver.

So there’s a lot of focus on improving your performance, getting it to the peak?

Yeah

And can you tell me, to someone who has never even been in any racing car, what does it feel like driving a GP2 car and what most impresses you about it?

A GP2 car is nice but I’ve driven an F1 car a couple of days so eh. If you come back from an F1 car, GP2 car is quite, quite slow compared to F1, but eh carbon brakes are quite powerful on the initial brake bite on the peak, you have a lot of G-force so the deceleration, it feels pretty good um.
The engine feels alright, it's just a, a nice racing car to me.

Obviously you've had your first GP2 event a few months ago in Bahrain, and you were on poll. What were your feelings when you go that poll?

Well it was great I, I was driving this lap and I thought okay it feels alright, we had new tires, second run and, when I was crossing the start and finish line was watching on my display I said whoa, how did I do this um? And it was really a great lap so eh, it was, I was quite happy of course.

Were the other drivers kind of surprised by your speed, what was the reaction from the other drivers?

For sure they were surprised, even I was surprised, I didn't um expect it to be that performed I knew from, from free practice eh with P2, that the pace was there and um, yeah that was alright, but I didn't expect it to do, to put in a poll position at the first race weekend.

And finally, think back to 2007 now. When you were offered the test driver position at Williams F1, did you feel that you’d really arrived at that point?

Yeah for sure as a test driver you are in formula one, but the aim is to be, to be a racing driver so it was, it was nice to be part, and to be part of F1 team now, but eh the aim is to get a racing seat and then, then the goal is, the goal is there and then of course you want to be successful in F1.