Sauber has made good progress in recent weeks. Pic: @tinnekephotography
One of the anomalies of the past couple of seasons has been a lack of progress on track by the Sauber Formula 1 team, despite the huge efforts made by Audi to ramp up the organisation ahead of 2026.
You could perhaps argue that the mediocre performance has been because of those efforts, given the significant ongoing changes at Hinwil and the inevitable time lag associated with bringing in new people and restructuring.
The good news is that recent races have seen genuine progress made, with an upgrade working well and the team – with the very capable help of Nico Hulkenberg – executing weekends effectively.
Boosted by a strong first lap Hulkenberg went from 15th to sixth in Spain before gaining a bonus spot from Max Verstappen’s penalty, and then in Canada he rose from 11th to eighth.
Throw in his seventh place in the season opener and he lies 11th in the World Championship, with more points than the likes of Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly.
“Feels good, feels very positive,” he said when I asked him about his Montreal race. “Very happy, of course, to continue that trend, and carry the momentum into here and onwards from here.
“I think at the end of the day, it’s down to the performance upgrade, it’s showing some good performance and promise in the race again. I think more maybe than in quali. So it was a good, clean race.
“Yeah, it’s positive. I think all the work from the last few months, or the last six months, is kind of paying off a bit. And you see paying dividends, which is obviously a rewarding feeling, very nice, and how it should be.
“So we need to keep doing what we’re doing. And the meantime, hopefully we can find a bit more performance in the next couple of weeks.”
Hulkenberg is doing exactly what Audi wants him to do, which was to use his vast experience to move the team forward and bring home the points.
Despite some good performances his rookie team mate Gabriel Bortoleto has yet to score, and to his credit the Brazilian concedes that Hulkenberg is doing a better job.
“I think he’s taking out of the car more than we actually should be,” he said. “I think he’s an excellent driver, and I really admire everything he’s doing, because I think it’s impressive. I’m happy because we have such a similar pace in quali and in the races as well. It’s just that he manages to get every single opportunity.
“And I believe a lot comes from the experience, you see the race in a different way that I’m not able yet to see. And I think he’s very good at doing this, so I think I’m learning on that way from him, and hopefully I can do the same steps he’s doing right now, and start scoring some points for the team.”
With 10 races now under his belt, the car looking stronger and a lot of familiar European tracks coming up, Bortoleto now has the opportunity to show what he can do.
“I think our season has been a very good one,” he said. “But unfortunately in terms of results in the races, every time something happens, so we are not able to use the opportunities. And we know we so far this season, maybe now it’s changing, but we didn’t have a car consistently to score points.
“So the opportunities we had to score points, we missed with me, and from many reasons, sometimes from my side, sometimes from other things and but again, I think this happens to everyone, but it’s frustrating to not score points, obviously, because I really want to tart scoring points and delivering a bit for the team, with all the hard work they are putting in.”
The upgrades aside the less tangible contribution to the general upswing has been from the leadership team of Mattia Binotto and Jonathan Wheatley.
The latter obviously brought winning know-how from Red Bull, and in the short time that he’s been on board his contributions in terms of improving processes and procedures have been embraced.
“I’ve put myself under a lot of pressure to take on as much information I can,” he says. “Mattia has been helping me understand how we’ve ended up where we are, and what his observations are, and then, honestly, the last two races, we’ve put some changes in place.
“Certainly in terms of communication how we go into the race, our preparation going into the race. So changing things a little bit. No huge changes, you can’t do that in the middle of the season, but certainly, I would say the last two races, being here in the race team, being sat on the pit wall, it’s an incredibly professional approach.”
For any racing team success is about constant evolution and improvement.
“What I would say, and I’ve said from the beginning, is it’s important that we learn from our mistakes,” says Wheatley. “We’re going to make mistakes, and we have done this year, but we’ve learned from them, and there’s a real energy about that.
“People are feeling confident. The environment here is recrimination free, and you need that in order to push on and move forward. So we’re learning, we’re getting stronger, and I think as a team, we’ve just got that momentum behind us at the moment, and it feels great.
“And plus when you’re putting things on the car that make it faster, you know that your tools are working. And that’s a great situation to be in looking at 2026 as well.”
Wheatley mentions confidence, and there’s no doubt that his presence and winning records at Red Bull has helped to instil it in the team, although it’s difficult for him to judge his own contribution.
“It is hard, because you look in the mirror and you brush your teeth in the morning, you’re the same person you were yesterday!,” he says.
“Look, I have spent a huge amount of time in the paddock. I like to I’d like to think that the measured way I approach things when they go wrong, I think giving people the confidence, because you can talk about creating an environment that’s recrimination free, you can talk about creating an environment where people thrive – you have to live it.
“In fact, I live for working in teams that are engaged, that are excited, that are building momentum, finding small advantages, feeling confident in doing that and putting their hands up when they make a mistake.
“And I think I’m living with that here now. And as I’ve said, the last two races, sat on the pit wall has been fantastic. It’s been a really, really professional approach.”
The focus remains on 2026, and of course everything depends on the performance of the new power unit, which remains a complete unknown at this stage.
But however strong it is the team needs to maximise the potential of the package, and the remainder of this season is an extended opportunity to prepare for the next chapter.
“You can say believe, you can say develop a willing mentality, but until you’re on that journey, until you have the momentum, it’s very hard for people to actually believe it,” says Wheatley.
“I’ve worked on racing teams my whole life. Every winter you rebuild yourself, you come forward and go, this is going to be the year, this is going to be the year.
“And if you’re not delivering, it’s hard to get that momentum. But like I say, the structure here, the way things are going at the factory, the way things are going racing at the moment, I think it’s giving people confidence that we really are going in the right direction.”
Adam Cooper F1 