Where Audi F1’s Wrong Hülkenberg Decision Leaves Driver Market

The name will be the same. 12 years after his departure, Nico Hulkenberg returns to the Sauber Formula 1 team in 2025. However, his situation has changed, as has that of the team – and the championship as a whole since the last days of the era of the V8 engine.

As Audi’s rebranding looms, this is the chance Hülkenberg felt he had previously been unfairly denied in F1. And it’s one he absolutely deserved.

Hülkenberg’s move from Haas to Sauber for 2025 took a while. Only last September, he openly coveted this precise transfer – acknowledging that Audi had sought a German driver when it officially announced its commitment to F1 a year earlier.

The manufacturer has also been agitating in the driver market in 2025, so boosted by Lewis Hamilton’s decision to join Ferrari.

This moved another famous agitator in the field, Red Bull motorsport advisor and racing career-maker Helmut Marko. But Audi – through Sauber team representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi – has deliberately positioned itself as “a market player” and not a spectator.

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He wants his driver list for 2026 to be settled sooner and has made his offers to reflect that position. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz is said to be in a lucrative offer to formalize a mutual long-term interest in the project, while Hülkenberg has matched Audi’s early intentions by signing early.

Given Audi’s status and motorsport pedigree, this is a remarkable career turnaround for the driver who, in 2021, had been adrift from the previous year and getting a taste of IndyCar – a venture he ultimately wasn’t comfortable pursuing – between COVID-19 replacement workouts for the Racing Point/Aston Martin team.

Hulkenberg on the Chinese Grand Prix grid

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Audi’s decision gives Hülkenberg the chance he thought he had been denied.

Hülkenberg’s previous F1 season with Sauber in 2013 was marked by several stunning performances in Ferrari-powered machinery, with his races at Monza, Korea, Suzuka and Austin being the highlights. In Korea, he kept Fernando Alonso and Hamilton at bay.

Then his pole position in Brazil in 2010 for Williams and his lead race for Force India at the same circuit two years later were still fresh memories. In 2013, he was therefore repeatedly linked with a subsequent move to Ferrari and joining Sauber was seen as preparation for such a move.

But it never came – at the Scuderia or anywhere else. The move to turbo V6 hybrids placed a new emphasis on driver weight and Hulkenberg, at 6 feet, felt that worked against him.

Audi, led by Andreas Seidl, who led the Porsche LMP1 team where Hülkenberg won the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans on his 2015 debut, knows what this has in store.

“I never got an answer where [teams] “Sorry, no, we refused you because you are too big,” Hülkenberg said in an interview with selected media, including Autosport, during the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix.

“They probably wouldn’t say it directly to my face. But I’m pretty sure it has, yes, hindered the rare opportunities and opportunities to upgrade to a premium car. Packaging issues, less space, more weight. [were the reasons cited]which is not the right solution in this profession.”

He was speaking in the smaller, relatively spartan Haas campervan on this day of soaking in Spa.

The German returns to Sauber after racing for the team in 2013

Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images

The American team and its team principal at the time, Guenther Steiner, gave Hülkenberg a revitalization of F1 in 2023. Haas needed a more reliable driver than accident-prone Mick Schumacher, and Hülkenberg had pestered Steiner with calls and even data presentations on what he still had to offer. as a runner.

He delivered quickly. His seventh place at the Australian GP, which could have been a podium if the stewards had decided differently on the chaotic end to that event, convinced Steiner to activate the option in Hülkenberg’s initial 1+1 contract for 2024. This was before he even really performed regularly in qualifying last year, before inevitably falling back due to the VF-23’s massive race tire wear problem.

This good form has continued this year – with Hülkenberg leading teammate Kevin Magnussen 2-0 in Q3 appearances through the first five rounds and by four points to one in the drivers’ standings.

Audi, led by Andreas Seidl, who led the Porsche LMP1 team where Hülkenberg won the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans on his 2015 debut, knows how this feels. The odd rash mistake still remains of the sort during maneuvers with Hamilton at Interlagos 2012 – think of his start gaffe at the Qatar GP – but overall Hülkenberg feels like the same driver he was at the end from his time at Renault in 2019. He just feels a lot fitter these days.

At 38 in August next year, some will say this call blocks a spot for a promising young rider.

But the reality is that this actually makes it easier for Haas to sign Ollie Bearman for 2024. It is understood that the team would like to do so if Bearman can maintain the impressive performances he showed in Jeddah during his six appearances in F1 FP1 in 2024 and the remaining Formula 2 events this year.

The other young driver tipped for an F1 2025 promotion – Andrea Kimi Antonelli – has never been a Sauber/Audi competitor given his links to Mercedes.

Then there’s the way Hülkenberg is delivering the type of results that a hotshot like George Russell was getting from the back of the grid for Williams in 2019-21 – so it’s not like there’s a shortage of fans on that front.

Developments in the driver market have opened up a chance for Oliver Bearman to make the move to F1

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Of course people like change. But the lack of F2-F1 promotion over the past two years reflects both the relative weakness of recent junior categories and the fact that F1 teams simply don’t make the more emotionally charged decisions that outsiders might. to wish.

Hülkenberg’s experience is obvious to Audi. He wants him to be “closely involved in the development of Audi’s first F1 car for 2026” – via Sauber’s press release announcing his signing.

This development makes things more difficult for two existing F1 drivers: Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu. It’s increasingly clear that the Swiss-based team wants an entirely new lineup for Audi’s first F1 season, given the choices Hülkenberg has already made and which Sainz is currently deliberating over.

Hulkenberg’s transfer to Audi complicates the driver market situation

If Sainz gets the chance he desires elsewhere on the grid – most likely from Red Bull given the competitiveness and length of contract he could offer, even if he is unwilling to hand out a salary as high in Sainz as Audi – Sauber has a practical fallback. or the holder.

Zhou has appeal for the Chinese market where Audi wants to sell more road cars. This, in theory, would leave Bottas looking to extend his F1 career at Alpine or return to Williams.

Here, Hulkenberg’s move to Audi complicates the situation as it has been suggested to Autosport that Williams could be a signing for Antonelli. It is therefore more likely that all parties involved in these potential deals will now wait longer to see where the pieces fall, even if others fall elsewhere.

In terms of results, Bottas and Zhou have been disappointing overall over the last two years. This reflects more on the 10-time Grand Prix winner who could earn a significant salary by joining Mercedes for 2022 and could still be a candidate to replace Magnussen at Haas, but also more on Sauber’s current place in the F1 pecking order.

Audi will aim to become a ‘big’ F1 team in 2026

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

This puts pressure on Audi and its engine project from 2026.

Its OEM status, 13 victories at Le Mans, two world rally crowns, the 2017-2018 FE teams title and success in the 2024 Dakar Rally mean it should be considered a ‘great’ F1 team. This is despite its current iteration being trapped in the bottom five group that is struggling to score regular points.

Sauber has also suffered pit stop humiliations this season and two instances where its upgraded front wings came apart without drivers hitting them against other cars or against walls (for Zhou during qualifying in Australia and when overtaking Kevin Magnussen last time in China).

However, given that both of these aspects were implemented with the aim of improving performance, the intentions are pleasantly positive.

Audi must now provide overall top-notch equipment, but also provide the time and resources necessary for its engineering to be able to succeed in F1. It can take a long time, as Mercedes discovered when they bought a race-winning car from Brawn in 2009 and as Toyota never discovered half a decade earlier.

The German brand enjoyed fairly instant success at Le Mans and FE, where it ultimately withdrew surprisingly quickly. It may not be possible to replicate this in F1, but the rewards, if enough patience and resources are provided around the right talented drivers, are much greater overall this time around.