Nico Hulkenberg arrived in Montreal off the back of what he himself called a character-building weekend in Miami. The German veteran's Sauber-Audi project has been one of the slower-burning 2026 stories — long on infrastructure investment, short on results — and the Canadian Grand Prix offered him a chance to publicly anchor expectations.
He took it.
"Yeah, plenty of character was built there," Hulkenberg said of Miami. "It was obviously a tough weekend for the team. Had some time now obviously to reflect on it, to digest everything. Had a couple of issues there during the whole weekend, and obviously it's been top priority for the team and everyone involved to get on top of it, to fix it, and parallel keep pushing and pursuing more performance. So we'll see how we get on."
The standout sentence came when he was asked whether the technical issues that defined the early months of 2026 had now been resolved.
"Well, we'll see about that," Hulkenberg said. "Obviously, Miami was a tough one for us, and obviously behind the scenes, the team has been working really hard and focused on fixing everything and getting on top of stuff there. On the reliability side — I think the performance, you know, when we run often, is pretty respectable and decent in the midfield. I think we are pretty competitive. But it's not unexpected. You know, this team previously has been a customer team. It's the first time you know we do everything ourselves on the power unit side. So it's not totally surprising and unexpected to have a bit of headwind. But yeah, I'm optimistic, especially even later in the season. I think there is still a lot of potential. So look forward to get things going from here."
This is the most calibrated sentence Hulkenberg has produced this year. Sauber spent two decades as a customer to Ferrari power units. Audi's takeover, formally completed at the start of 2026, made the Hinwil-based team an OEM constructor for the first time in its modern history. Every piece of integration work between chassis and power unit is now happening in-house. None of it is new to the people doing it — but the architecture is.
The first time we do everything ourselves on the power unit side line is, in plain terms, an admission that the on-track reliability story has been the natural cost of the takeover transition, not the failure of the project. The performance, by Hulkenberg's reading, is already there. The reliability layer is the part Audi-Sauber is still building from scratch.
The Canadian Grand Prix is also the third sprint weekend of the season, with only one hour of free practice before sprint qualifying. For a team trying to ratify a power-unit integration that is still being shaken down, that compressed format is the worst possible diagnostic environment.
Hulkenberg conceded the point — and pivoted.
"Obviously fifth race weekend and the third sprint weekend of the season, which is also challenging if you don't have that much practice time," he said. "It's kind of probably not the best way for us. But that's the way it is. But look forward to get the season started now, because it's been really start-and-stoppy. And I think I feel like with this weekend it's going to be kicked off properly into the summer and get into a proper season and rhythm."
The deeper bet inside Audi-Sauber is that the second half of 2026 looks nothing like the first half. Hulkenberg's optimism — especially even later in the season — is the line the team's senior management will quote internally when defending the Miami slump and the upcoming Canada race. The hard part is the bedding-in. The factory is now the OEM. The next development cycle is the one Audi has to use.
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