History was made at the 83rd running of the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race, with current Formula One star Nico Hulkenberg taking the honours for Porsche. In the German marque’s first outright win at Le Mans, Hulkenberg in the #19 entry was joined by Kiwi Earl Bamber and Briton Nick Tandy, all rookies competing at this event in the LM P1 class.
The photo finish saw the Force India F1 driver steer the 919 Hybrid to the chequered flag, with the #17 Porsche entry – piloted by former Red Bull junior driver Brendon Hartley, ex-F1 driver Mark Webber and German Timo Bernhard – completing memorable the one-two.
In doing so, Hulkenberg became the first Formula One driver since Sebastien Bourdais in 2009 to contest the prestigious race while still competing in Formula One.
The last driver to actually win Le Mans while maintaining the F1 presence was Johnny Herbert in 1991, driving the iconic Mazda 787B chassis.
With Formula One teams exercising a great deal of restrictiveness over their drivers these days in regards to sampling other motorsports, witnessing the 27-year-old’s victory is a real eye opener to the success that the talent in F1 can attain outside of their favoured category.
A great measure of applause ought to go towards Vijay Mallya, Force India’s team principal and Hulkenberg’s full-time boss. Without the passion to see his driver succeed, the decision would not have been made to give the German the opportunity to accept the Le Mans berth.
Perplexingly, Hulkenberg remains scrapping away in the midfield of the Formula One grid. Since his debut in 2010 for the Williams team, he has only achieved a single pole position (coming at the Brazilian round that year) and a best race finish of fourth.
After the solitary season with Williams, Hulkenberg took the back seat in 2011 as Force India’s test and reserve driver, before getting the promotion in 2012. For 2013, off the back of the podiums accomplished by Sergio Perez, Hulkenberg moved to Sauber only to have an ill-fated year.
Upon returning to Force India in 2014, he was partnered with the Mexican Perez and took the team to a sixth place finish in the constructors’ standings.
Hulkenberg runs the risk of finishing his career having missed a drive with the likes of the Ferrari, McLaren or even Mercedes AMG, especially with the junior flair of Max Verstappen on the horizon.
Established race-winners and podium finishers such as Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas also threaten Hulkenberg’s employability among the larger teams.
Having that Le Mans success though means that Hulkenberg boasts a victory that no one else on the grid does.
If only the days of multi-disciplined drivers, such as Graham Hill, still existed. Hill of course remains the only driver to have achieved the ‘Triple Crown’ of motorsport – winning outright at Le Mans, victory at the brickyard for the Indy 500, and a Formula One triumph at Monaco.
Let Hulkenberg’s rookie win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans be an illustration to all Formula One outfits that racing is racing – no matter what the category.