Nico Hulkenberg expects ‘building year’ on Sauber return with ‘a lot of things to look forward to’ at Audi

The campaign ahead will mark the final year before the squad becomes Audi’s works outfit in 2026, and Hulkenberg gave an insight into what the aims are for Kick Sauber in 2025 with that long-term view in mind.

“In some ways it’s a building year,” the 37-year-old said. “Our target is to be competitive and to obviously score as many points as possible. You always have to remember where we came from last year – it’s a difficult kind of starting point.

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“The team and us, we’ve been pushing over the winter but right now we can obviously only speculate where we are, where everybody else is. For us the motto is head down, push hard, work hard and maximise everything on and off track. [We’ll] go for the opportunities when they come.

“It’s obviously a long road ahead, with the process started now, and behind the scenes many things are already ongoing with respect to next year, which is a big thing and exciting, especially for myself, being German with a German manufacturer and works team. A lot of things to look forward to, and [I] look forward to getting the season started soon.”