{"id":35917,"date":"2025-07-13T05:19:20","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T09:19:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=35917"},"modified":"2025-07-13T05:19:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T09:19:20","slug":"why-saubers-mid-season-resurgence-gives-hope-for-audi-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/07\/13\/why-saubers-mid-season-resurgence-gives-hope-for-audi-in-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Sauber’s mid-season resurgence gives hope for Audi in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nico Hulkenberg<\/a> is enjoying some of the best results in his F1 career, regularly scoring points in the C45. Beyond his podium finish in Silverstone, Hulkenberg has become a frequent name in the top 10 this year – thanks to Sauber’s improvements.<\/p>\n

Sauber’s impressive mid-season upgrades have put them into 6th in the standings – a position they haven’t fought for since 2022.<\/p>\n

Aside from the successes of this year, the Hinwil-based team is working hard to carry this momentum in 2026.<\/p>\n

Sauber deliver highly efficient upgrades<\/h2>\n

Prior to this season, Sauber were suffering a steady decline of their competitiveness.<\/p>\n

After starting strong when the 2022 regulation were first introduced, the Swiss squad were comprehensively out developed by other teams.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Nico Hulkenberg during qualifying at Silverstone. (Photo by Sam Bloxham\/LAT Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They languished at the back in 2023 and 2024 – relying on Valtteri Bottas<\/a> and Zhou Guanyu to outperform their machinery to score points.<\/p>\n

Heading into this year, the paddock consensus was that Sauber would once again be relatively uninspiring.<\/p>\n

Indeed, for many weeks, Hulkenberg’s P7 in Australia looked like it could be the team’s only points of 2025. The C45 was generally the slowest car in the first six races of the season.<\/p>\n

This all changes at the Spanish GP, when a series of updates transformed Sauber’s year.<\/p>\n

Nico Hulkenberg stormed to a brilliant P5, even overtaking Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton<\/a> at the Safety Car restart.<\/p>\n

Other small modifications have steadily arrived since then, cementing Sauber’s position as regular points contenders.<\/p>\n

Even with other midfield teams bringing upgrades, Sauber’s relative gains have been untouched.<\/p>\n

What it means for 2026<\/h4>\n

In many ways, Sauber<\/a> have completely flipped the script this year – defying expectations with the C45’s development trajectory.<\/p>\n

This season, at least to some extent, was seen as something of a transitional campaign before the 2026 regulations.<\/p>\n

Next year, of course, will be the first time Sauber officially competes under the Audi name with the German manufacturer’s engines.<\/p>\n

Although Audi already own the team, 2026 will be when a new era is ushered at Hinwil.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Gabriel Bortoleto prior to the F1 Grand Prix of Great Britain. (Photo by Andy Hone\/LAT Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, there are considerable doubts about Audi’s prospects for the incoming set of regulations.<\/p>\n

These fears generally concern their engine programme<\/a>, which will be playing catch-up to other more established manufacturers.<\/p>\n

What is often overlooked in discussions about Audi’s 2026 aspirations, however, is that the factory in Hinwil will continue leading in aerodynamic development.<\/p>\n

In this sense, Sauber’s impressive gains in recent months are an encouraging sign about the changes in the team’s infrastructure taking place behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

Team principal Jonathan Wheatley<\/a>, who recently joined after gardening leave from Red Bull<\/a>, has outlined the path forward:<\/p>\n

“It’s been beautifully well maintained, but it’s very old,” <\/em>he told Lawrence Barretto.<\/p>\n

“And obviously, part of the transformation this year is a complete transformation of our trackside appearance.<\/em><\/p>\n

“You’ve got to spend some time in the present, and you’ve got to really be focused on the future and what we’re doing over the next five years.<\/em><\/p>\n

“So part and parcel of what I’ve been doing is looking at trackside infrastructure.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Looking at projects that are underway, very quickly having to have an influence on those, allocating some different resources in different areas.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Making sure the budgeting is strong and all that kind of boring stuff, to make sure that we really, really make an impact as Audi next year.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Main photo: Clive Rose\/Getty Images (Sauber media gallery)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nico Hulkenberg is enjoying some of the best results in his F1 career, regularly scoring points in the C45. Beyond his podium finish in Silverstone, Hulkenberg has become a frequent name in the top 10 this year – thanks to Sauber’s improvements. Sauber’s impressive mid-season upgrades have put them into 6th in the standings – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":35920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[206,2452,345],"class_list":["post-35917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-audi","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-sauber"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35917"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35921,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35917\/revisions\/35921"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}