Why Sauber’s mid-season resurgence gives hope for Audi in 2026

They languished at the back in 2023 and 2024 – relying on Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu to outperform their machinery to score points.

Heading into this year, the paddock consensus was that Sauber would once again be relatively uninspiring.

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.

This all changes at the Spanish GP, when a series of updates transformed Sauber’s year.

Nico Hulkenberg stormed to a brilliant P5, even overtaking Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton at the Safety Car restart.

Other small modifications have steadily arrived since then, cementing Sauber’s position as regular points contenders.

Even with other midfield teams bringing upgrades, Sauber’s relative gains have been untouched.

What it means for 2026

In many ways, Sauber have completely flipped the script this year – defying expectations with the C45’s development trajectory.

This season, at least to some extent, was seen as something of a transitional campaign before the 2026 regulations.

Next year, of course, will be the first time Sauber officially competes under the Audi name with the German manufacturer’s engines.

Although Audi already own the team, 2026 will be when a new era is ushered at Hinwil.

However, there are considerable doubts about Audi’s prospects for the incoming set of regulations.

These fears generally concern their engine programme, which will be playing catch-up to other more established manufacturers.

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

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.

Team principal Jonathan Wheatley, who recently joined after gardening leave from Red Bull, has outlined the path forward:

“It’s been beautifully well maintained, but it’s very old,” he told Lawrence Barretto.

“And obviously, part of the transformation this year is a complete transformation of our trackside appearance.

“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.

“So part and parcel of what I’ve been doing is looking at trackside infrastructure.

“Looking at projects that are underway, very quickly having to have an influence on those, allocating some different resources in different areas.

“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.”