‘We were there when it mattered’ – Hulkenberg enthusiastic about scoring points on ‘milestone’ Kick Sauber debut

Nico Hulkenberg put on a mighty performance in Australia as he recovered from a Q1 exit to finish in the points on his debut for Kick Sauber, masterfully staying clear of the chaos throughout the race.

After a successful two-year stint at Haas, the experienced driver elected to change teams for 2025, where he has been paired with last season’s Formula 2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of Audi’s takeover of the Swiss outfit.

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Sauber got used to struggling to break into the top 10 in 2024, finishing the year with just four points on the board thanks to Zhou Guanyu – that total has already been bettered after a single race thanks to Hulkenberg’s P7 finish in Melbourne.

With six drivers – unfortunately including his rookie team mate – crashing out of the eventful, rain-affected Grand Prix, the German was able to climb through the field and finish ahead of both Ferraris and Oscar Piastri.

“We didn’t see that coming for the first half of the race, it wasn’t looking too good but then things got a bit more entertaining towards the end,” Hulkenberg said. “We made some good calls, I think other people were struggling and we picked up the pieces but yeah, we were there when it mattered so very happy to have scored those points today.

“First race under your belt is like the first milestone, you learn so much in a race. We’ll digest and process everything. A couple of days to analyse, regroup and then we will go again.”

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While it was a strong debut for the 37-year-old, his younger team mate became the third rookie to be defeated by the challenging conditions as he went off the track and found the barriers with just 12 laps of the race remaining.

The Brazilian had already impressed after he narrowly made it to the second part of Qualifying earlier in the weekend, knocking out both Hulkenberg and his fellow rookie Kimi Antonelli.

Bortoleto said: ”It was a tough race, the pace I think for a race stint was going very well with what we had. We got some unlucky things, when we went to the pits and we went back we had a Safety Car coming in just in front of me, so when I was able to unlap myself I couldn’t get to the back as I just had one lap to unlap.

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“So basically I restarted the race very much in the back, trying to recover and unfortunately touched the kerb and ended up in the wall. It is a shame, I’m sorry for the team but I’m happy for the points Nico did. He did an amazing job, he deserves it and the team deserves it.

“[In] conditions like this, everything can happen. We are driving on the limit and I was trying everything I can, I ended up pushing a bit too hard but the race was going well so far and the Qualifying was also a good session.”

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