The missed star F1 performance obscured by Verstappen's Spanish GP antics

Let's clear something up, before we move onto a slightly more salubrious topic.

I don't want to linger too much on the Max Verstappen incident here; when I filed my 200 words on whether I believed he should be disqualified, I still felt that there was enough reasonable doubt in the incident. Data traces show us a lot more than we see on TV but, occasionally, interpreting them isn't too dissimilar to a Rorschach test - were both drivers travelling at the same speed, a late throttle trace would be a smoking gun but, when Verstappen was over 50km/h down on Russell at that point, you can make the argument that he was simply trying to reach the corner at the same velocity - if that makes sense.

In any case, Verstappen pretty much said he did do it, which renders that point of view moot. The regulations do not allow for a retroactive disqualification, but I do believe that the FIA should add an extra penalty point for misconduct and bench him for Montreal. Circumstantial evidence is, well, circumstantial - a confession is a confession. Can we move on now?

At this point you'll notice the laboured and contrived artistic representation of this column's focus, in that Verstappen's antics have already obscured the expected subject of this piece. Without Verstappen in the picture, the top four finishers are wholly unsurprising and fit the general competitive picture of this season, which offers a nice contrast between them and Nico Hulkenberg in fifth place. In a Sauber.

Hulkenberg was a class act during the Spanish Grand Prix, demonstrating a perfect blend of wily opportunism and determination in breaking the midfield lines to capture the team's best result since Valtteri Bottas bagged fifth at 2022's Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix. His result offered a substantial pay-off for Sauber's continual development throughout 2025; having recognised its C45 was perhaps underdeveloped at the start of the year, the Hinwil operation has been particularly prolific in bringing updates this season.

With Hulkenberg's magic, the team's Barcelona finish was the first real sign of the revival it has undergone over the past year, having stalled out significantly towards its latter days as Alfa Romeo.

Sauber's upgrades landed at the right time for Hulkenberg to profit in Spain

Photo by: Peter Fox / Getty Images

Despite its best efforts, Sauber has spent pretty much all season with back-seat tickets to the 2025 matinee. As the Swiss team finally reaches the final stages of its protracted prelude before its metamorphosis into Audi's works outfit, it finally seems to be finding some semblance of direction under the aegis of Mattia Binotto and Jonathan Wheatley. Before Binotto joined up as COO/CTO in the latter stages of last season, the team was ensconced in the ennui of its holding pattern, aimless and under-resourced.

Audi had been reticent to increase its ownership of Sauber as long as the team did not yet carry its name, yet Sauber's former ownership no longer wanted to put money into an outfit it would not own in the future. CEO Andreas Seidl was wrapped up in his internecine conflict with Audi CTO Oliver Hoffmann, and Audi seemed to view anything before 2026 as an inconvenience. Binotto, meanwhile, found that the team was "frozen" on his arrival. The ex-Ferrari team principal started to address the importance of development - even if the current ruleset was due to end before Audi's involvement. He reasoned that, without producing updates for the current cars, how could Sauber hope to keep its development tools up to date?

The team's track operations also needed a breath of fresh air. Racing director Xevi Pujolar was effectively running the show, without a 'proper' team leader to set the pace; for all of his geniality and knowledge of F1, team representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi was not a principal. That's not to say Pujolar wasn't doing a good job, but it was not within his remit to chart the team's course. Knowing that Wheatley held ambitions to step up into a leadership role, one that he was not likely to achieve at Red Bull as Christian Horner rode out the storm at the start of 2024, Audi acquired his much-coveted services. Subject to gardening leave, the renowned steward-whisperer was not available until April 2025, where he finally took office for the first time in Japan.

"Driver confidence is something very difficult to actually put a number on in the wind tunnel. We do put a number in the simulator, but not on the wind tunnel. And that's what the main upgrade is geared up for" Inaki Rueda

With Wheatley on board, it feels as if the team is slowly accruing forward momentum. After a few races spent assessing the team's quirks and foibles, he got to work on the low-hanging fruit needed to get Sauber firing - pitstops and strategic calls being among them.

Armed with further upgrades for Spain, beyond just the front wing changes mandated by the technical directive on wing flex tests, Sauber had targeted a more consistent stream of downforce. The updates to the floor and sidepods themselves, according to sporting director Inaki Rueda, did not expand the peak load much - but instead aimed to ensure that this magnitude of load was more accessible throughout an entire lap.

"This is the meat of what we're bringing here, and is aimed at producing a car that gives more of a uniform downforce," Rueda explained prior to the weekend's sessions. "What do I mean by this? We design cars that produce maximum downforce in the wind tunnel. But of course, the wind tunnel usually has one ride height; we scan ride height, we scan other positions also. But what is very difficult to design in a wind tunnel is transients.

Sauber appears to be finally putting all its key pieces together ahead of its transformation into Audi from 2026

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

"What do I mean by transients? When a car falls in front or when there's a wind gust, these are very difficult and we call them dynamic transients. And so this new package it produces a bit more downforce, but what we hope is giving us the edge is giving more foreseeable downforce for the driver. So what you call driver confidence, which is something very difficult to actually put a number on in the wind tunnel. We do put a number in the simulator, but not on the wind tunnel. And that's what the main upgrade is geared up for."

Of the two drivers, Gabriel Bortoleto found more of that confidence in qualifying - the cheerful Brazilian rookie outqualified Hulkenberg to plonk his car 12th on the grid, as the German fell out in Q1 by just half a tenth to Isack Hadjar. Still, Hulkenberg garnered a rapid start and, amid the first-corner kerfuffle where he ended up being tagged by Alex Albon, and sent the Sauber up on the escape road.

Cynical? A little bit. But if there's leeway at the first corner to avoid the kerfuffle while following the race director's guidance, you'd be silly not to take it. Bortoleto had done the same ahead, although Hulkenberg then put the moves on his team-mate - as the two were running to vastly different strategies - before catching and passing Fernando Alonso a lap later.

Sauber tried two different strategies in Spain; Hulkenberg pitted early (lap nine) to garner some undercuts and take a long stint on the mediums, while the team went longer with Bortoleto in an effort to make a one-stop work.

For Hulkenberg, this worked exceptionally well. The Rhinelander continued to move up the order as his midfield rivals cycled out in their own strategies, passing Pierre Gasly for ninth, and waited for Liam Lawson to conduct his second stop before making his own visit for softs on lap 45. The gaps ensured that he could keep hold of his top 10 berth, and 10 laps of running before the safety car emerged for Andrea Kimi Antonelli's stranded Mercedes; the silver machine's oil reservoir had leaked itself dry.

Hulkenberg almost didn't stop, choosing to stay out on lap 55. Sensing that this might make him vulnerable on the restart, Sauber made the sensible call to pull him in a lap later for a spare set of fresh softs - which he'd ironically saved from a sub-par qualifying performance. That proved to be the clincher, allowing Hulkenberg to make use of the new-tyre delta for his late-race progress.

The impressive Hadjar was disposed of on the first of the six end-of-race green-flag laps. With Lewis Hamilton then flailing around ahead, the Ferrari driver irked by his car's heavy-handedness with its rear tyres, Hulkenberg sensed the opportunity to claim an even bigger scalp. He put the move on the seven-time champion with two laps to spare to collect sixth - which became one better when Verstappen was relegated to 10th.

Hulkenberg's promoted fifth was Sauber's best result since Bottas at the 2022 Emilia-Romagna GP

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images via Getty Images

Bortoleto didn't quite have the luck that Hulkenberg received, but nonetheless produced a strong race. The one-stop was ambitious, but was never truly going to work; as such, Sauber boxed the Paulista on the 49th lap, coming back on track four laps before Antonelli's car came to a halt. While Bortoleto reclaimed some track position by staying out, which put him on Esteban Ocon's tail, his marginally used tyres versus the fresh or scrubbed tyres around him were a minor hindrance on the restart.

Ocon was dispatched easily, but Lawson proved a much tougher nut to crack; Bortoleto toiled in the Racing Bulls' wake, opening the door for manager and mentor Alonso to move past both and collect the final point on offer. Still, the team at least collected 10 points for the weekend - a result that moved it above Alpine and Aston Martin in the constructors' standings.

"I think you saw a class act today," Wheatley enthused after the race. "You saw somebody who had a point to prove. I think we can come away from that knowing he's proven it. He's not a driver that lacks confidence and he's not a driver that lacks experience but even this will be a real boost for him I'm sure.

There's more in the pipeline for 2025, sure, but it's still all about the Audi project in 2026

"I think I'd say I was just pleased that the upgrade did what we expected it to do," he added, "and the feedback from the drivers was consistent and that we had a racing car under us today, and it's the first time that I've felt that since I've been here and it's a great feeling and I'm trying to stay in the moment a little bit before pressing on to the next race.

"It's huge [for morale]. There's so much hard work goes on and so much passion in this team and for me, I'm hoping that we can use this as one of the springboards that I talked about, on this roadmap we've got towards where we want to be. I'm hoping we can build on the momentum from this."

Wheatley also nodded to the "tremendous talent" of Bortoleto, and was keen to celebrate Sauber's big-money result - particularly following the cancellation of his Sunday night flight home. But Hulkenberg's drive and his result truly was stellar; as his move from Haas was put under question following Sauber's early-season struggles, the veteran racer hit back at the sniping - and deserves his Barcelona flowers.

Is it too much to expect more from Sauber? There's more in the pipeline for 2025, sure, but it's still all about the Audi project in 2026. Still, you don't need to sacrifice two years to get there - and the management of Binotto and Wheatley is intent on proving that.

While Swiss-based squad has a bigger focus on 2026, building momentum this year will be vital ahead of its transition

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images