Hülkenberg and the importance of 2025 for Audi's arrival: "We are laying the foundations"

For Sauber, 2025 means transition. The Swiss team is in fact experiencing its last year under its historic name before definitively ceding its place to Audi, which has finalized full takeover in March 2024.

It is therefore a campaign during which the Swiss team, already well supported by the German manufacturer, has no intention of lingering as 2026 promises to be a huge challenge with the introduction of new regulations, which are being dreaded by the entire paddock. Nevertheless, there is no question of going through the year without any pretensions. Far from it. If some specialists agreed that Sauber would be in the continuity of 2024 where it was only a shadow of itself (saved by the 4 small points of Guanyu-Zhou in the penultimate GP) it is clear that the team of Hinwil has intentions.

The first rounds demonstrated this with Gabriel Bortoleto, certainly a rookie but capable of great things, and above all a Nico Hulkenberg, invigorated by this return home and this new adventure. Aware that this 2025 season promises to be rather lenient, the German is nevertheless playing his cards to the full in order to gain a little ground before Audi takes over for good in a few months. For the former Haas, every day is a new step in the 2026 project.

« It's helpful to have this year to build yourself up, to get to know everyone, to really settle in, to connect with the team and the project, rather than starting from scratch and cold next year., he confides to the official F1 website.

But that said, this year is obviously another year of competition, and we want to do things well and improve. We have to improve, even thinking about next year, where the tension will obviously be greater with the arrival of Audi as an official team.

We're laying the foundations and doing the groundwork for the next two years, so to be honest, every day and every step of the journey is already important. »

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