Nico Hulkenberg expects a difficult start to his first race back at Sauber after driving the team’s new C45 chassis in pre-season testing.

Sauber finished at the bottom of the championship standings last year. Hulkenberg, who last drove for the team in 2013 and has returned to them from Haas, sayid they “need to wait and see” where they will stand in the pecking order this year.

“In Bahrain the car felt challenging to drive,” he told the official F1 channel. “I think we’ve identified a few problems, it wasn’t optimal there.

“Obviously we’ll give it our best shot here but I think it’s very hard to predict and to tell but I expect a challenging weekend.”

The team’s fastest lap time over three days of testing at the Bahrain International Circuit was the slowest in the field, though all 10 new cars for 2025 were covered by just 1.7 seconds. Sauber will become Audi’s works team next year and has made it clear it is prioritising work on its 2026 car.

Nonetheless Hulkenberg is upbeat about returning to racing in Melbourne this weekend. “Of course starting a new season things are always exciting and it’s always a good and happy feeling,” he said.

“I’m not the biggest fan of winter periods when there’s no racing and there’s too much downtime. You can get some crazy and funny ideas so I’m very happy that the season will start and all the noise around you stops and you focus on the racing and what’s important and what matters.”

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Sauber has also confirmed former Red Bull sporting director Jonathan Wheatley will take over as its new team principal next month. Hulkenberg has already spoken to Wheatley ahead of his arrival.

“Everyone is looking forward for him to get going,” said Hulkenberg. “I think he will be a good addition to have at the team.

“Obviously he comes with a huge wealth of experience and from one of the teams that has been pretty dominant in the last decade. I’m sure he can contribute a lot, short-term, mid-term and long-term. So I look forward to that.

“I’ve known him obviously from the paddock for many years but we’ve never worked closely together. I look forward to start that too.”

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