The historic podium achieved by Nico Hulkenberg at the Silverstone Grand Prix marked a major milestone for the Sauber Formula 1 team. It was a breakthrough weekend for the Swiss outfit, which returned to the podium celebration for the first time in years—thanks not only to Hulkenberg’s driving skill and strategic clarity but also to the tangible performance of the C45, a car revitalized through an intense and continuous development programme. Under the technical guidance of Mattia Binotto, the team has been working relentlessly to improve the car’s performance, with an eye toward building long-term competitiveness that will extend well beyond the 2025 Formula 1 season and into the upcoming regulatory overhaul in 2026.
The Pace Is Real
While luck certainly played a role in Nico Hulkenberg’s third-place finish at Silverstone—with sudden rain and several mistakes from front-runners shuffling the order—Sauber fully earned the result through flawless execution. The team demonstrated excellent coordination between drivers and engineers, making the right calls on strategy, tire pressures, and car setup. The C45, in Hulkenberg’s hands, showed impressive pace, particularly during the mid-phase of the race, where he pulled away from Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari, and successfully fended off the Briton’s late charge on slick tires in the final laps.
Sauber’s rising competitiveness is evident from its recent form, with three consecutive points finishes in Austria, Canada, and most notably in Spain, where Nico Hulkenberg secured a strong fifth place. These results highlight the evolution of the C45, which has transformed from being one of the slowest cars on the grid at the beginning of the season into a serious midfield contender. Since the season opener in Melbourne, the Swiss team has introduced four updated floor versions, the latest of which debuted in Austria just a week before the Silverstone podium. This version featured revisions to the diffuser and underfloor surfaces—changes that are not easily visible from outside but made a critical aerodynamic impact. It was a continuation of the upgrade package initially introduced at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, widely regarded as a turning point in Sauber’s 2025 campaign.
The Precision of Updates
In Spain, Sauber debuted major updates to both the floor and sidepod architecture, engineered to optimize the aerodynamic interaction that shields the Venturi channels from turbulence generated by the front wheels. After the Silverstone Grand Prix, Sauber Team Principal Jonathan Wheatley emphasized the importance of that Barcelona package, stating: “Since Barcelona, we’ve seen growing confidence from the drivers in the car. Before that, the C45 had a very narrow operating window. You might recall how difficult it was for our drivers to improve during qualifying—one of our biggest issues. I remember in Jeddah they even struggled to set the car up properly for turn 1 braking. Now, we don’t even talk about that anymore.”
The technical department, led by Mattia Binotto and James Key, has worked successfully to widen the C45’s performance window. Through reshaping the car’s aerodynamic map, they created a more linear and predictable response to changes in speed, ride height, corner type, and environmental conditions. These updates have produced cascading benefits: they reduced the need for steering corrections, improved tire management, and restored driver confidence—critical for pushing the car closer to its limits. This boost in drivability was clearly visible at Silverstone, where the rain rewarded the harmony between car and driver.
Beyond 2025: Building for the Audi Era
Just a week before the Silverstone podium, Jonathan Wheatley reflected in Austria on how the team’s upgrades have contributed to long-term growth: “It’s encouraging to see the work Mattia [Binotto] started nearly a year ago finally bearing fruit. The tools are starting to correlate with each other. The parts we fit to the car are heading in the right direction, the drivers have more trust in the car, and we now understand the C45 far better than we did five or ten races ago.”
The development path that brought Sauber back into the points actually began in the second half of the 2024 season, when the team started introducing upgrades in rapid succession. While those efforts did not prevent the Swiss team from beginning the 2025 season as the slowest car on the grid, the engineers in Hinwil never stopped pushing forward. The aggressive development strategy was never just about short-term results; it was also designed with the future in mind.
Despite the imminent regulation changes in 2026, Sauber invested heavily in upgrading the current car. The philosophy behind this approach lies in using the existing C45 as a real-world testbed—perfect for refining simulation tools, improving the correlation between CFD models, track data, and wind tunnel results, and identifying priorities for future car designs. Now, Sauber finds itself just 18 points behind Williams in the Constructors’ Championship. A fifth-place finish would provide the ideal foundation for Audi’s full entry into Formula 1 in 2026.
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