{"id":91761,"date":"2025-08-24T06:46:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T06:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/91761\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T06:46:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T06:46:07","slug":"the-similar-trend-nico-hulkenberg-sees-between-his-two-sauber-f1-stints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/91761\/","title":{"rendered":"The\u00a0\u2018similar\u00a0trend\u2019\u00a0Nico Hulkenberg sees between his two Sauber F1 stints"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nico Hulkenberg<\/a> sees echoes of his 2013 debut season with Sauber<\/a> in his return to the Swiss outfit for the 2025 Formula 1<\/a> campaign, noting a familiar pattern of steady development and gradual improvement.<\/p>\n

Speaking ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, the experienced German drew parallels between the two periods. Rewind 12 years, and Hulkenberg was one of F1\u2019s brightest young talents, eager to make his mark at a new team. <\/p>\n

However, the start of the season did not go according to plan. Following a strong 2012 campaign in which Sauber secured sixth in the Constructors\u2019 Championship, expectations were high for 2013, especially after four podiums were achieved the previous year by drivers Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi.<\/p>\n

The early races proved challenging. In the first 11 rounds, Sauber collected just seven points \u2014 all scored by Hulkenberg. But the season wasn\u2019t entirely bleak. <\/p>\n

Things took a dramatic turn in the second half, starting with a standout performance in Italy, where Hulkenberg\u2019s third-place qualifying \u2014 behind only the Red Bulls \u2014 marked a key moment in Sauber\u2019s recovery and helped push the team up the standings. He finished fifth at Monza and scored points in six of the final eight races.<\/p>\n

The revival was fueled by aerodynamic updates introduced at the Hungaroring and mid-season changes to Pirelli\u2019s tyre strategy.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on those parallels, Hulkenberg highlighted how both seasons required adaptation before the team could regain competitiveness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it took longer for us to turn it around,\u201d he told media including Motorsport Week. \u201cI think it started from here [Hungary] and the front tyres, the construction changed or something.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we picked up competitiveness again, but it has similar trends. Memories are blurry. I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s a long time ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NicoNico Hulkenberg\u2019s Monza drive to fifth ignited Sauber\u2019s late-season surge in 2013<\/p>\n

Hulkenberg leads another Sauber mid-season turnaround<\/p>\n

The key difference this season is Sauber\u2019s end-of-year transition into the Audi works team. Yet the 2025 campaign began in a familiar fashion. Despite a fortunate seventh-place finish in Melbourne, which earned him six points, the 38-year-old endured a dry spell until round nine in Spain.<\/p>\n

Rookie team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto also failed to score during this period. But an upgrade introduced at the Circuit de Catalunya\u2013Barcelona shifted the team\u2019s momentum.<\/p>\n

Sauber collected 35 points over the next four races, with 31 of those coming from Hulkenberg, who also secured a career-first podium at Silverstone. Meanwhile, Bortoleto contributed his first points in Austria with an eighth-place finish, as Sauber eventually climbed to seventh in the Constructors\u2019 Championship.<\/p>\n

While the turnaround bore similarities to 2013, as Hulkenberg noted, this season\u2019s recovery arrived earlier. Another key difference is the stage of his career: more experienced and settled, he isn\u2019t facing the same adjustment struggles that some drivers experience when switching teams.<\/p>\n

When asked if he felt he was already at a peak, Hulkenberg explained: \u201cI don\u2019t know if you can say a peak. I think you\u2019re always progressing. You\u2019re always adjusting, learning as the season goes on.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see the cars change sometimes with updates. And you\u2019re constantly working and fine-tuning your driving style, your technique. So it\u2019s a constant work-in-progress situation for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s not like you\u2019re struggling. Obviously, taking a step back, objectively looking at it, qualis have been challenging this year. Which is a bit unusual from my past.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think there\u2019s still some room for improvement there and some things we can clean up.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE \u2013 Nico Hulkenberg raises situation Audi must avoid under 2026 F1 rules<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nico Hulkenberg sees echoes of his 2013 debut season with Sauber in his return to the Swiss outfit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,852,924,85],"class_list":["post-91761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-nico-hulkenberg","tag-sauber","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}