Sauber hails Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto after sensational F1 turnaround

Sauber has showered praise on both Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto for the role they have played in the team’s sensational turnaround in Formula 1.

The Hinwil-based squad started the 2025 season with the slowest car and was consigned to the bottom of the  constructors' championship, with Nico Hulkenberg’s seventh-place in Australia looking like an outlier in an otherwise tricky run of races.

But a series of successive upgrades from the Spanish Grand Prix transformed its fortunes, with Hulkenberg putting together a memorable drive to third at Silverstone to register its first podium since the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix.

Rookie Gabriel Bortoleto has also made massive strides to score points in three of the last four races, including a career-best sixth in Hungary just before the summer break.

Together, their points-scoring run has propelled Sauber from 10th to seventh in the championship in a span of six races, with rival Aston Martin just one point ahead in sixth.

Sauber team principal Jonathan Wheatley described Hulkenberg and Bortoleto as the “most collaborative” driver line-up he has experienced in his time in F1, which included a long stint as Red Bull’s team manager/sporting director from 2010-2023.

“It's incredibly important,” he said. “I have to say that it's the closest, most collaborative driver pairing I think I can even remember in all my time in Formula 1.

“Gabriel has a fantastic work ethic. He has a capacity for taking on new information. He's proving in every way to be the future star that we expected him to be. And Nico is part of that journey with him.

“On the other side of the engineering table, you've got this extraordinary experience and Nico's proven talent. I mean, we're talking about Gabi a lot [after Hungary], but Nico did a tremendous job. You don't really see it or you don't notice it because it didn't result in a points finish. But as a team, we're very pleased with both of our drivers.”

Bortoleto made the step up to F1 this year after beating current Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar to the 2024 Formula 2 title.

Unlike Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli, the Brazilian driver didn’t have the luxury of an extensive testing programme in an older-generation grand prix to prepare for his F1 debut.

Wheatley said he has been impressed by the way Bortoleto has “matured” and “developed” as a driver in a limited timeframe.

“It's worth pointing out again that he hasn't done 10,000 kilometers of testing of previous cars," he said. "He hasn't done 10,000 kilometers in the Formula 1 car.

“It's his first season in Formula 1. There are so many circuits that he's not been to. And there's some coming up that he hasn't been to. He's been able to deliver brilliantly over the last few races in circuits that he knows.

“I think he's matured and developed as a driver. And I think he's going to be able to adapt to these new circuits much quicker than he did in the first half of the season.”