The time is running for Nico Hülkenberg and clean. The racing team starts the new season as an Audi work team in six months, the ambitions are huge. And there is still a lot to do.
Another six months, then a new racing driver life begins for Nico Hülkenberg. In autumn of his career, he becomes a Audi factory pilot, the goals are huge, his boss looks ahead. “I expect Nico to win every single race,” says Mattia Binotto in the SID interview – and then has to laugh: “However, we need the best car for that.”
You are ambitious from the German manufacturer, but rather not measure. Audi has taken over the small Swiss clean racing stable, convert it step by step, and the team will officially start the four rings in the coming year. If Formula 1 on Sunday (3:00 p.m./RTL And Sky) returns from the summer break in Zandvoort, the final sprint begins for Hülkenberg and Co.
They want to drive around the World Cup title from 2030. This schedule is already the same as the climbing of Mount Everest, says project manager Binotto, who has decades of experience from Ferrari. Hülkenberg’s role? “I want Nico to climb in front.”
With his experience, the German should help with the development of the racing car, and this year he should also use the best possible results for Sauber so that the team takes on momentum for the big tasks. That succeeds surprisingly well. Started as a supposed bottom, Sauber has now arrived in midfield, Hülkenberg even caused a sensationally good result with third place in Silverstone.
“Compared to the top teams, we are still missing 150 employees”
For the 38-year-old, it was the first podium in Formula 1, even before the Audi project really started so that nobody expected. A “spirit of optimism” is currently felt, says Hülkenberg at Motorsport-Magazin.com, “everyone involved knows that they are part of a large project. This is in all my mind.”
Nobody should expect too much too quickly, says Binotto. If the summit is the goal, the team is still at the base station, the way up is only planned. There were and are many construction sites. The car is being built in the Swiss town of Hinwil, the drive is built at Audi in Neuburg. It is about the integration of both locations, but also “about mentality, behaviors, the number of the team’s numerical size, about capacities in the factories, instruments such as the simulator and the wind tunal. The deeper you dig, the more you find,” says Binotto: “The distance to a top team was definitely huge.”
The racing team is growing steadily, but he is still inferior to the big one alone, “we are still missing 150 employees compared to the top teams”. So there will not be a start of a vertical right in the coming year, but basically nothing will be missing: All necessary resources for success are available, says Binotto, “now it depends on us to implement this.”
From 2026, every season should be better than the previous one. And will German fans actually see Nico Hülkenberg in the Audi at some point? “I hope that,” says Binotto, “and I think that.”