Michael Schumacher’s brother, Ralf Schumacher, picked Nico Hulkenberg as Max Verstappen’s ideal teammate at Red Bull. Schumacher, who is a compatriot of Hulkenberg, believes that Hulkenberg would be a great fit alongside Verstappen at Red Bull due to the Sauber driver’s enormous experience and stability.

Hulkenberg has over one and a half decades of racing experience in Formula 1. Before Sauber, the 37-year-old German had raced for Williams, Force India, Renault, Haas, and served as the reserve driver for Aston Martin. He has racked up 240 F1 entries and picked up a pole position and two fastest laps so far.

However, a native of North Rhine is the only driver in the current grid with the highest number of appearances without a podium. Despite this, Hulkenberg has shown ample consistency and delivered impressive performances coming into 2025.

After Hulkenberg’s recent P8 finish at the Canadian Grand Prix, Ralf Schumacher also talked about the German racer’s experience gained without driving for big teams like Mercedes. Speaking to Italian media outlet, FormulaPassion, the former F1 driver said:

“Yes, he ( Nico Hulkenberg) would be good at his (Max Verstappen) side . They get along well and Nico started well in Hinwil: you can see it from the results, fingers crossed.”

“I don’t want to offend anyone, but I can imagine that Nico’s feedback is the best that Sauber has had in recent years . He has learned from experience, he has always been in teams where there was a lot of work to do: he wasn’t in Mercedes, for example, where the car was perfect and the driver only had to drive.”

Coming into 2025, Nico Hülkenberg has accumulated 20 points in 10 races, with a P5 finish in Spain as his best performance. Compared to him, Yuki Tsunoda, Verstappen’s partner, has picked up 10 points and is placed in P15 in the Drivers’ Championship.

Max Verstappen’s teammate knows Red Bull’s course of action if he does not perform

Max Verstappen’s teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, knows ‘what’s going to happen if he does not perform’. Ever since his promotion from Racing Bulls to Red Bull, the Japanese driver has failed to prove his worth, and this is something Christian Horner’s team tackles ruthlessly.

Yuki Tsunoda and Max Verstappen of Oracle Red Bull Racing – Source: Getty

Speaking to the media about his performances before the Canadian GP, Tsunoda said (Via Motorsport.com):

“As long as I don’t really perform myself, I know what’s going to happen and I know myself, it’s not the place I should be. But let’s see. I have confidence that I can come back strong. You guys like to talk about the second seat, about Red Bull, but it is what it is.”

Yuki Tsunoda joined Red Bull before the Japanese GP, and has raced for the Milton Keynes-based team in eight races, where he finished inside points only three times — a P9 in Bahrain, and two P10s in Miami and Imola.