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A decade-long Formula 1 career that looked like it had ended in 2019 is now well into a bonus second phase with a "fairytale" move on the horizon. Not bad after Nico Hulkenberg only got back on the grid at all via a last resort.
Dumped by Renault at the end of 2019, Hulkenberg clung to F1 by his fingernails. He had two unexpected stand-in opportunities in the COVID-hit 2020 season with Racing Point, then became that team's official reserve driver for its transformation into being Aston Martin. But he didn't race again until the first two rounds of 2022. And even then it looked like, despite his best efforts, the curtain would fall sooner rather than later.
Now, midway through 2024, Hulkenberg's one of the form drivers in F1 again - and is gearing up for the biggest move of his career, to spearhead the massive new Audi programme.
He'll rejoin Sauber - the team Audi's buying, which he drove for in 2013 - in 2025 ahead of its full transformation in 2026 - headhunted partly because of his nationality, but primarily because of his renewed status as one of the most dependable F1 drivers available.
And all because he found himself on Haas's radar in mid-2022. That's a team that Hulkenberg would have previously considered himself above driving for.
"It's worked out for me, for Haas, for everyone," Hulkenberg tells The Race.
"It's a good story. And also, with that Audi move now, a bit of a motorsport fairytale story. Because you could not expect that from being three years out to what has been written now.
"It's pretty cool. And I'm proud and happy about it."
The main point of judgement of Hulkenberg tends to be the 'never had a podium' statistic (he's now at 217 grand prix starts without one, if you're counting) but the story of his career will most likely be how he was never in the right place at the right time, and never quite got the big move when he deserved it.
Returning to the F1 grid with Haas, the smallest of all the teams, just to go back in the midfield that Hulkenberg had spent his entire career in felt like a regression beyond even what he was doing back when he was first a regular. He himself admits it was the last roll of the dice.
"When I was trying to come back in and chasing the seat and the opportunity," Hulkenberg says, "obviously, it's not like I had a tonne of alternatives!
"This was the final straw, so to speak.
"At the time, the Haas season started quite well in 2022. But then came to a bit of a stop. So, I knew I'm not signing up just for sunny days. And there's also going to be some bad days and some headwinds.
"I just wanted to come back because I missed the competition. I missed the work with the team. I missed the driving. All I really wanted to do is to come back and just to be the best version of myself."
Some people close the F1 door and move on to other things when they get axed. Hulkenberg never did that. He was willing to walk through the door regardless of which one opened.
Being open to the struggle and the sacrifice again, to the disappointment and the frustration of not just being back in the midfield but being in a lesser team, is a big ask of a driver. And the 2023 season clearly tested Hulkenberg's renewed commitment because there's no way he thought, even with Haas's unconvincing track record, that the "Sunday downers that felt like a broken record" would be the season he was signing up for.
But he was back on the grid. And he still thinks within all of Haas's 2023 struggles, he was able to put himself in the shop window. He felt that he had something to offer, and was showing it with excellent qualifying performances. And now that Haas is a more competitive Sunday prospect, Hulkenberg is flying again - but he insists he was always buoyed by the bigger picture.
"That's again where my three-year break comes in - the appreciation of what this gives us, still how much pleasure it gives me, even if it went bad and it went the wrong way," he says.
"I still know the other side and I know the alternative sitting at home on the couch watching is even s***tier!
"It still puts it into perspective. And I was still trying to get the best out of it. So, while it was challenging and tough to swallow those Sundays, I still prefer that."
Early in Haas's much more competitive 2024, it became very clear that Hulkenberg was a very likely candidate for Audi's future F1 entry.
So when his deal was announced in April it wasn't a surprise in the context of his comeback in 2023, his early 2024 performances, and what options Audi had.
But look back a few years, to where Hulkenberg's career was, and the sheer unlikelihood of getting back on the grid at all - what's come together must have been a huge surprise?
"Yes," Hulkenberg affirms. "Yes, it has! Even when I signed the initial original contract with Haas, my mind wasn't that far ahead.
"I didn't expect that...I have this approach much more week by week, see how it goes, I just want to enjoy and live the moment and see what happens after that.
“I didn't have this grand masterplan coming back, but it just worked. Because I'm happy, I'm in a very positive and good mindset, which allowed me to perform well, and that performance translated into this great opportunity."
Haas and Hulkenberg gambling on each other has, ultimately, paid off well for both. When Haas signed him, turfing out the underperforming Mick Schumacher for a veteran driver who had spent three years on the sidelines, it must have known it was only getting a driver for the short or medium term - either because of Hulkenberg's age, or potential rustiness, or that he would quickly prove he was too good for the team.
To have got two seasons out of him, especially a season as good as 2024, where it looks like he will be crucial to Haas finishing sixth or seventh in the championship, means that this is absolutely a win for Haas. And Hulkenberg's form has been key to the team making itself appealing to its 2025 driver line-up of Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman, too.
And Hulkenberg would never have imagined, at 36 years old, he'd be preparing for another team move that - who knows - might well be the career move. You have to imagine this will be his biggest payday ever. And, despite all the doubts about the Sauber side of the equation, it's Audi.
Hulkenberg's right, it's worked out for everyone. And this is fairytale stuff for a driver who didn't need much to be knocked into another life, one in which in 2025 he is in his sixth year of F1 retirement. Not preparing to lead Audi's F1 assault.
Falling off the grid at the end of 2019 might have been the best thing that could have happened to Hulkenberg's F1 career. Who knows what would have happened if he had lasted one or two years more. No sabbatical, no fresh perspective and renewed motivation, no more opportunities? If so, no career revival and no Audi offer.
"Absolutely, absolutely," says Hulkenberg.
"And it's good, I'm super happy the way it turned out and I had that time away.
"I learned to live kind of outside of F1, it was actually only really 2020 that I was fully away because 2021 I was already reserve driver for Aston Martin. So it was one year, and I had the COVID races in 2020, but it was enough time to properly disconnect, just do what I wanted to do really, take the F1 hat off and refresh.
"I always followed the sport closely on race weekends. But it just kind of lit the fire up again, put things into perspective. It was good for me to see from the other side."
It's a side many drivers don't get to come back from. So, if this project flops, maybe it'll be another case of Hulkenberg not being in the right place at the right time. Maybe.
But there's a decent chance that he shouldn't be in this place at all. And given what Hulkenberg wants, it's better to be in F1 and it not quite work out - with Audi of all teams - than to not be here at all.
Before then, though, there's a chapter to finish with Haas, a team Hulkenberg says he clicked with very quickly, and still enjoys his time with. Their underdog efforts together have Haas in the fight for an unlikely sixth in the championship - a result Hulkenberg says would be "very huge".
"Especially after coming last, last year, that would be a hell of a turnaround and comeback," he says.
"And I will push till the last corner and try to get every point that I can. I owe that to the team."
