Nico Hülkenberg secured a crucial P9 finish for Sauber, bringing home two vital points after a battling performance. Hülkenberg’s drive in the 2025 São Paulo GP was a story of recovery. After starting from P10, a difficult first lap saw him drop behind Alonso and Albon, which he described as “not ideal”.
“Obviously not an ideal first lap, losing a couple of positions which never helps your case,” Hülkenberg said. Despite the setback, the rest of his race was “pretty happy”. He settled into a long first stint on medium tyres, getting stuck behind Alex Albon’s Williams before making a pass, and he managed to execute his strategy perfectly.
An ambitious one-stop strategy
The key to Hülkenberg’s race was an effective one-stop, switching from his starting mediums to a set of new soft tyres on lap 36. This left him with a challenging 35-lap stint to manage.
“We came back from that with an effective one-stop,” he explained. “Quite a long stint on the soft. And it was a used soft, so that was nice to pull that off.”
Hülkenberg confirmed the team was never tempted by the hard tyre, a C2 compound for the 2025 Säo Paulo GP. “We were always a bit not confident with the hard,” he noted. “We didn’t think it was the best race tyre.”
The strategy put him right in the middle of “good, tight racing” as he fought to hold his position, ultimately bringing the car home in the points. He did lose out to Isack Hadjar on the penultimate lap, however. The German had failed to get past Liam Lawson before that.
Heartbreak for the Home Hero
At the 2025 São Paulo GP, Hülkenberg’s side of the garage had a solid day. However, he acknowledged the “frustrating weekend” for his teammate, Brazilian rookie Gabriel Bortoleto.
Bortoleto’s home race was a disaster. It began with a heavy crash in Saturday’s Sprint race, which led to him missing the Qualifying. After the team rebuilt his car, his race ended on the very first lap after contact with Lance Stroll.
Hülkenberg’s comments perfectly caputred the rookie’s situation: “It’s ironic that it’s such bad timing because he’s done such a brilliant season up to this point. And then this weekend obviously you make one wrong action… in a split second and everything goes in the bin.
“This is the very tough and hard part about our sport,” Hülkenberg reflected. He finished with a veteran’s perspective, showing support for his young teammate. “I know he will bounce back. I think it’s cheesy now to say that, but it will make him stronger. He will have probably 20 more home races to come and they can only get better.”
