{"id":82739,"date":"2025-08-20T15:32:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T15:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/82739\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T15:32:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T15:32:09","slug":"why-sauber-isnt-giving-up-on-f1-2025-despite-2026-overhaul-and-audi-transformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/82739\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Sauber isn’t giving up on F1 2025 despite 2026 overhaul and Audi transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Up and down the Formula 1 pitlane, the finest engineering minds are fully focused on solving the challenges of the forthcoming shift to an entirely new car and drivetrain package for the 2026 season. Given McLaren<\/a>\u2019s dominance, many could be forgiven for declaring this a \u201cstop the count\u201d moment and disregarding entirely the 10 remaining rounds of 2025.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not how Sauber<\/a> plans to transact the next four months, even though its immediate future involves a transition to a new identity as Audi. A new floor geometry added earlier this year unlocked some unexpected development avenues which it intends to exploit.<\/p>\n

And while the factory\u2019s engineering focus has shifted to the 2026 package, from an operational standpoint Sauber has plenty of development runway, according to team principal Jonathan Wheatley.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven’t given up on 2025 yet,\u201d said Wheatley, speaking exclusively to Autosport. \u201cFor us, it’s about strength and depth in terms of our operation. So using this momentum that we’ve gained over the last few months, continuing getting stronger and stronger in terms of our trackside operations, our factory operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople talk about continuous improvement, in every single area, we need to just be continually pushing the boundaries. We need to be adding strength in depth in the organisation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to be empowering the people, because this is where our shortcut to our ambitious journey is, it’s in creating the right culture and creating a working environment where these people are all adding positively to the contribution of the team. So that’s very much the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Gabriel <\/p>\n

Gabriel Bortoleto gets a hug from Jonathan Wheatley<\/p>\n

Photo by: Guido De Bortoli \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Sauber has much in common with Williams<\/a> in that it is a team whose glory days are the proverbial speck in the rear-view mirror, but which has great ambitions under a new owner. While it\u2019s absurd to suggest that anyone involved in the operational side of an F1 team is simply treading water, happy just to be there, Sauber \u2013 like Williams \u2013 has spent much of the past decade or more fighting to keep the lights on. Getting cars to the track was an achievement in itself.<\/p>\n

For Sauber the F1 peaks include a 2001 season where a rookie Kimi Raikkonen<\/a> made his name in the technically adventurous C20 car with its \u2018twin-keel\u2019 front suspension mountings, and a spell under BMW ownership which put Robert Kubica<\/a> into contention for the 2008 world championship. Kubica still believes he would have had a better shot had BMW pushed on with in-season development rather than shifting focus to the \u201909 car early.<\/p>\n

When BMW joined the manufacturer exodus in 2009, during the aftermath of the global financial crisis, the team narrowly avoided falling into the hands of the so-called \u2018trillion-dollar conman\u2019 Russell King. Since then, for the most part, it has bumped along the bottom.<\/p>\n

In these circumstances, lack of investment means a slow slide away from cutting-edge facilities in the factory, a battle to make do, and a struggle to attract the best engineering talent. Among Wheatley\u2019s mandates from Audi is to instil some of the winning mentality drawn from his time as sporting director of Red Bull, where the trackside team was as ferociously competitive as the drivers.<\/p>\n

When Wheatley joined the team at the Japanese Grand Prix, a significant performance update for the C45 car was already making its way through the system and into production. From race one the C45 has been notably poor in traffic, and both Nico Hulkenberg<\/a> and Gabriel Bortoleto<\/a> complained of severe buffeting around the cockpit while running in \u2018dirty air\u2019.<\/p>\n

The current generation of cars were supposed to be less sensitive to the wake of the cars ahead, so that they could run closer to one another through corners. But development \u2013 not just the effectiveness of the underfloor architecture, but also the exploitation of loopholes around wing geometries \u2013 has brought increased wake turbulence.<\/p>\n

\"Nico <\/p>\n

Nico Hulkenberg, Sauber<\/p>\n

Photo by: Guido De Bortoli \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Evolution of the C45 through the season has focused on making the aerodynamics less \u2018peaky\u2019; so that the downforce it produces is more easily accessible and consistent. In Spain, Sauber introduced a new front wing, floor and rear bodywork configuration. There, Hulkenberg scored the team\u2019s first points of the season since the wet opener in Australia.<\/p>\n

More significantly, the revised floor opened up some new development opportunities and Sauber made more changes to the floor edges in Austria and Silverstone, along with new track-specific wing packages. In recent grands prix Sauber has outscored its nearest rivals and given the frontrunners something to think about: Hulkenberg claimed his first-ever podium at Silverstone and Bortoleto finished three places ahead of Max Verstappen<\/a> in Hungary.<\/p>\n

The mood music from Hinwil suggests this is just the start, rather than a consolidation process.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn every single area of the business, we can improve,\u201d said Wheatley. \u201cMyself included. Every single day is a learning experience.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re going from a small team that’s done an incredible job, frankly, of putting two cars on the grid for the last 30 or so years into a fully-fledged works Audi F1 team. That journey is ambitious, and we’re not going to do it without having the people on board and without challenging every system and operation we have and pushing ourselves beyond the normal amount.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe announced Revolut internally as our [2026] title partner<\/a> before we issued the press release, and the energy in the room, the energy in the building, was incredible. It’s a great place to be at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this article<\/p>\n

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