Williams's new signing Nico Hulkenberg is the latest product of a German junior racing scene determined to churn out potential successors to Michael Schumacher.
He has been earmarked for stardom from an early age, having shone in karting and picked up the patronage of Schumacher's management Willi Weber.
Hulkenberg delivered the German Formula BMW title in his first season in cars, but it was in A1GP in 2006 and 2007 that he really came to the motorsport world's attention, as the then 19-year-old took a victory in his debut weekend in the nation versus nation series and went on to sweep to the championship title for Team Germany.
Williams engineering chief Patrick Head recently remarked that it was this performance that encouraged the team to take a closer look at the rising young talent, who went on to add the Formula 3 Euro Series title in 2008 and then to win GP2 in his rookie season this year, just as Lewis Hamilton had back in 2006.
By this time Hulkenberg was already a Williams test driver, and was entrusted with rather more of the pre-season preparation work than many of his fellow reserves – his promotion to the race squad being a question of 'when' rather than 'if'.
He now joins predecessor Nico Rosberg and 2009 runner-up Sebastian Vettel as a potential future German champion, and with countrymen Timo Glock, Adrian Sutil and Nick Heidfeld all likely to stay in Formula 1 and all capable of finishing on the podium at least, Germany's place at the forefront of the sport looks assured for years to come.
Factfile
Date of birth: 19 August 1987
Place of birth: Emmerich, Germany
Nationality: German
Place of residence: Germany
Status: Single
Height: 1.84m
Weight: 70kg
Racing career
2009
One win in GP2 Asia part-season
GP2 Series champion
Williams F1 test driver, signs 2010 race deal
2008
Formula 3 Euro Series champion
Williams F1 test and reserve driver
2007
Third in Formula 3 Euro Series
Winner of Masters of Formula 3 event
Takes Team Germany to A1GP title
2006
Fifth in German Formula 3
2005
German Formula BMW champion
Third in Formula BMW World Finals
2003
German karting champion
2002
German junior karting champion
1997
Starts karting at age of 10
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