The identify would be the identical. 12 years after he left, Nico Hulkenberg is heading again to the Sauber Components 1 crew in 2025. But his circumstances are a lot modified and so are the crew’s – and the championship total from the ultimate days of the V8 engine period.
Because the Audi rebrand looms, that is the shot Hulkenberg felt he’d beforehand been unjustly denied in F1. And it’s one he’s completely earned.
Hulkenberg’s move from Haas to Sauber for 2025 has been some time within the making. Solely final September, he was overtly coveting this actual switch – recognising that Audi had needed a German driver when it first formally introduced its F1 entry a 12 months earlier.
The producer has additionally been agitating within the 2025 driver market so turbocharged early by Lewis Hamilton’s determination to hitch Ferrari.
This has stirred one other well-known agitator within the sphere, Purple Bull’s motorsport advisor and driver profession kingmaker, Helmut Marko. However Audi – by way of Sauber crew consultant Alessandro Alunni Bravi – has intentionally positioned itself as “a player in the market” and never a spectator.
It needs its 2026 driver line-up sorted early and has made its gives to replicate that place. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz reportedly has a profitable supply to formalise mutual long-term curiosity within the challenge, whereas Hulkenberg has matched Audi’s early intentions in signing sooner.
Given Audi’s standing and motorsport pedigree, it is a exceptional profession circled for the motive force who in 2021 had been adrift because the 12 months earlier than and sampling IndyCar – a enterprise he ended up not comfy in pursuing – in between COVID-19 substitute drives for the Racing Level/Aston Martin squad.
Hulkenberg on the grid on the Chinese language Grand Prix
Picture by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
The Audi transfer offers Hulkenberg the shot he thought he’d been denied.
Again in 2013, Hulkenberg’s earlier F1 season with Sauber featured a number of beautiful performances in Ferrari-powered equipment the place his drives at Monza, Korea, Suzuka and Austin have been the highlights. In Korea, he thrillingly stored Fernando Alonso and Hamilton at bay.
Then, his 2010 Brazil rookie pole for Williams and his frontrunning drive for Pressure India on the identical monitor two years later have been nonetheless recent reminiscences. In 2013 he was subsequently repeatedly linked with a subsequent transfer to Ferrari and becoming a member of Sauber was seen as preparation for such a change.
But it surely by no means got here – on the Scuderia or elsewhere. The change to the V6 turbo hybrids positioned a brand new premium on driver weight and Hulkenberg, at 6ft, felt this went towards him.
Audi, helmed by Andreas Seidl, who led the crack Porsche LMP1 squad the place Hulkenberg gained the 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours on debut in 2015, is aware of what it’s getting
“I’ve by no means had a solution the place [teams] mentioned, ‘Sorry, no – we turned you down since you’re too tall’,” Hulkenberg mentioned in an interview with choose media together with Autosport on the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix.
“Most likely they would not inform me straight to my face. However I am fairly positive that it has, yeah, hindered the odd alternative and event to leap to a high automobile. Packaging points, much less house, extra weight [were the reasons cited], which isn’t the appropriate approach round on this enterprise.”
He was talking within the smaller, comparatively spartan Haas motorhome that soaking day at Spa.
The German returns to Sauber having raced for the crew again in 2013
Picture by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images
The American squad and its then-team principal Guenther Steiner gave Hulkenberg an F1 revitalisation in 2023. Haas wanted a extra dependable driver than the crash-prone Mick Schumacher and Hulkenberg had badgered Steiner with calls and even information shows about what he nonetheless needed to supply as a racer.
He delivered swiftly. His seventh place on the Australian GP, which could’ve been a podium had the stewards’ dominated in another way over the chaotic ending of that occasion, satisfied Steiner to activate the choice in Hulkenberg’s preliminary 1+1 contract for 2024. This was even earlier than he actually often starred in qualifying final 12 months, earlier than inevitably slipping again amid the VF-23’s large in-race tyre put on drawback.
That good kind has continued this 12 months – with Hulkenberg main team-mate Kevin Magnussen 2-0 in Q3 appearances from the opening 5 rounds and by 4 factors to at least one within the drivers’ standings.
Audi, helmed by Andreas Seidl, who led the crack Porsche LMP1 squad the place Hulkenberg gained the 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours on debut in 2015, is aware of what it’s getting. The odd rash error nonetheless stays alongside the traces of shunting with Hamilton at Interlagos 2012 – suppose his Qatar GP begin gaffe – however total Hulkenberg feels he’s the identical driver he was when his Renault stint resulted in 2019. He simply feels a lot fitter today.
At 38 in August subsequent 12 months, there will likely be some who say this name is obstructing a seat for an up-and-coming younger racer.
However the actuality is that it truly makes it simpler for Haas to now signal Ollie Bearman for 2024. It’s understood the crew wish to do that if Bearman can sustain the spectacular performances he confirmed in Jeddah in his six 2024 F1 FP1 appearances and the remaining Components 2 rounds this 12 months.
The opposite younger driver tipped for a 2025 F1 promotion – Andrea Kimi Antonelli – was by no means a Sauber/Audi contender given his Mercedes ties.
Then there’s how Hulkenberg is delivering the kind of outcomes a hotshot reminiscent of George Russell was securing behind the grid for Williams in 2019-2021 – so it’s not as if followers are lacking out on that entrance.
The motive force market strikes have opened up an opportunity for Oliver Bearman to make the step into F1
Picture by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
After all, individuals like change. However the lack of F2-F1 promotion within the final two years displays each the comparative weak point of current junior class fields and that F1 groups simply don’t make the extra emotion-drenched choices outsiders could need.
Hulkenberg’s expertise is apparent to Audi. It says it needs him to be “intently concerned within the growth of Audi’s first F1 automobile for 2026” – by way of the Sauber press launch asserting his signing.
This growth does make issues more durable for 2 current F1 drivers: Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu. It has been changing into clearer that the Swiss-based crew needs an all-new line-up for the Audi’s first F1 season, given the alternatives Hulkenberg has already made and on which Sainz is now deliberating.
The Hulkenberg-to-Audi transfer does complicate the motive force market image
If Sainz does get the possibility he wishes elsewhere on the grid – most certainly from Purple Bull given the competitiveness and contract size it might supply, even when it is unwilling at hand out as excessive a wage for Sainz as Audi – Sauber has a useful fallback in both incumbent.
Zhou has the enchantment to the Chinese language market the place Audi is eager to promote extra highway automobiles. This, in idea, would go away Bottas trying to lengthen his F1 profession at Alpine or return to Williams.
Right here, the Hulkenberg-to-Audi transfer does complicate the image as a result of it has been steered to Autosport that Williams might be a rookie beginning spot for Antonelli. That makes it extra possible all events round these potential offers could now wait longer to see the place the items fall, even when others drop elsewhere.
Outcomes-wise, each Bottas and Zhou have total been underwhelming these previous two years. That displays extra on the 10-time grand prix winner who might command a major wage when becoming a member of from Mercedes for 2022 and should but be a candidate to switch Magnussen at Haas, but additionally extra on Sauber’s present place within the F1 pecking order.
Audi will intention to hit the bottom working as a ‘massive’ F1 crew in 2026
Picture by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
This heaps strain on Audi and its engine challenge from 2026.
Its OEM standing, 13 Le Mans wins, two World Rally crowns, the 2017-2018 FE groups title and 2024 Dakar Rally successes imply it have to be thought-about a ‘massive’ F1 crew. That’s though its present iteration is trapped within the backside 5 pack that struggles to attain common factors.
Sauber has additionally endured pitstop humiliation this season and two cases of its upgraded entrance wings coming aside with out drivers hanging them towards different automobiles or partitions (for Zhou in Australia qualifying and whereas overtaking Kevin Magnussen final day out in China).
Nonetheless, given each these features have been applied as a drive to enhance efficiency, the intentions are pleasingly optimistic.
Audi now wants to offer total class-leading tools, but additionally present the time and assets to get its engineering may into place to achieve F1. This could take a very long time, as Mercedes found when it purchased a title-winning entry in Brawn in 2009 and as Toyota by no means came upon half a decade earlier.
The German marque had fairly immediate success at Le Mans and in FE, the place it finally pulled out surprisingly quick. It might not be capable of replicate this in F1, however the rewards, if sufficient endurance and assets are offered round the appropriate driving expertise, are a lot better total this time round.
Can Hulkenberg assist Audi’s growth at the beginning of its F1 journey?
Picture by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images