Nico Hulkenberg expects a difficult start to his first race back at Sauber after driving the team’s new C45 chassis in pre-season testing.
Sauber finished at the bottom of the championship standings last year. Hulkenberg, who last drove for the team in 2013 and has returned to them from Haas, sayid they “need to wait and see” where they will stand in the pecking order this year.“In Bahrain the car felt challenging to drive,” he told the official F1 channel. “I think we’ve identified a few problems, it wasn’t optimal there.
“Obviously we’ll give it our best shot here but I think it’s very hard to predict and to tell but I expect a challenging weekend.”
The team’s fastest lap time over three days of testing at the Bahrain International Circuit was the slowest in the field, though all 10 new cars for 2025 were covered by just 1.7 seconds. Sauber will become Audi’s works team next year and has made it clear it is prioritising work on its 2026 car.
Nonetheless Hulkenberg is upbeat about returning to racing in Melbourne this weekend. “Of course starting a new season things are always exciting and it’s always a good and happy feeling,” he said.
“I’m not the biggest fan of winter periods when there’s no racing and there’s too much downtime. You can get some crazy and funny ideas so I’m very happy that the season will start and all the noise around you stops and you focus on the racing and what’s important and what matters.”
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Sauber has also confirmed former Red Bull sporting director Jonathan Wheatley will take over as its new team principal next month. Hulkenberg has already spoken to Wheatley ahead of his arrival.
“Everyone is looking forward for him to get going,” said Hulkenberg. “I think he will be a good addition to have at the team.
“Obviously he comes with a huge wealth of experience and from one of the teams that has been pretty dominant in the last decade. I’m sure he can contribute a lot, short-term, mid-term and long-term. So I look forward to that.
“I’ve known him obviously from the paddock for many years but we’ve never worked closely together. I look forward to start that too.”
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Jere (@jerejj)
13th March 2025, 7:02
I don’t feel like the off-seasons have too much downtime.
El Pollo Loco
13th March 2025, 7:10
I suspect the problem is that Audi’s had three years to expand the staff and upgrade facilities at Hinwil and have done close to nothing, which along with politics leading to a change at the top on both the chassis/Sauber side + Audi program head, has led to ebbing motivation and morale. Now, with the stagnant German economy, very public job cuts at VW Group, etc., it seems like Audi might be too terrified to start making those investments now. So, even if their PU is great, it may not even end up counting for much.
Hopefully, I’m wrong and they’re great with or without more staff and investment in Hinwil.
Hill (@pzero)
13th March 2025, 8:08
Yeah I agree. Although I see it as a huge positive they now have Binotto, Wheatley, Hulkenberg etc. Those are an experienced and motivated bunch of people that really want to go all the way to winning races.
This year will for sure be an off year. I expect them to be 10th all season. I think the goal is just to get adjusted to each other, let Bortoleto get used to F1 and build on from there. I’m afraid 2026 will also be a start up year, since they’re behind on schedule now. 2027 will be the first year I expect something decent from them.
SteveP
13th March 2025, 9:00
I seem to recall press interviews where Binotto said words which could be summarised as “you’ve been doing it all wrong” – hardly an inspirational leadership line of talk. The team collectively seem demotivated.
I think a bit of paraphrasing of Bottas’ comments about the 2024 car and Hulkenberg’ comments about the 2025 car would match up quite well, so probably no improvement this season
El Pollo Loco
13th March 2025, 16:26
Ironically, he said that yet also said “sure things are going more slowly than we’d like, but everything’s are going in the right direction.” That’s the type of alarming lack of urgency we heard from Mattia in 2022 when everyone kept saying “what’s with these weekly strategy disasters and muffed pit stops?” And he’d answer “no changes are needed. Everything’s fine.”
I’m assuming Wheatley will be the face of the team when he gets there (he’ll definitely be in charge of trackside operations, which is great) and hopefully Binotto sticks to what he’s actually good at: engineering.