Video of Max congratulating him in parc ferme as well:
Nico: “Max was the first guy who came (to congratulate me). We (Max and I) go way back, you know, from karting days when we were teens. I think we have a lot of respect… I mean, I have a lot of respect for him, you know — what he does, what he stands for. A great human being.”
Did he forget that Max is ten years younger then him? Max was still a little kid when he was a teen. They probably never raced in the same karting series. Though they maybe met on track via the CRG teams, since Hulkenberg was still training in karts with the CRG Holland team before his F1 debut and Max also drove for CRG
Both Max and him have repeatedly said the same on this and it always confuses me because of the age difference. It must be something like Hulk still doing karting besides his single seater climb up