Nico Hülkenberg

Nico was named as the AT&T Williams team's test driver after an impressive showing in a series of in-car, simulator and written assessments. Still only 20 years of age, he is unusually young for such a responsible role. However, the young German has been racing for more than a decade, having made his karting debut in 1997, at the age of 10.

By 2002, he was German Junior Karting Champion and the following year he won the German Kart Championship – something a certain Michael Schumacher had achieved previously. The parallels with Schumacher's progression to Formula One were underlined when Nico was identified by Germany's most prominent and successful driver manager, Willi Weber, who took the young protege under his wing.

In 2005, Nico made one of the critical steps in an emerging racing career by moving from karting to single-seater racing. He made his debut in German Formula BMW and dominated the championship, claiming the title with eight pole positions and nine wins from just 20 starts – matching the achievements of his new AT&T Williams team-mate Nico Rosberg.

In the past three seasons, Nico has taken part in the German Formula BMW Championship, German F3, A1 GP and Formula Three Euroseries. From a total of 68 starts, he has claimed 25 race wins and 14 poles. Besides winning the Formula BMW ADAC title, he helped the German team win the A1 GP title in 2006/07 as a series rookie.

Nico has also performed strongly in a number of non-championship races, including winning the Ultimate Masters of Formula 3 at Zolder. In 2008, he will again contest the Formula 3 Euroseries alongside his Formula One testing duties with the AT&T Williams team.