With this recurring column, ooooIYKYK aims to summarize activities of Audi racing campaigns and competition endeavors. This weekly series brief updates of results, preparation, happenings and rumors pertaining to on track activities. See a full calendar of motorsport activities involving Audi Sport factory, customer and Sauber F1 teams maintained HERE.
OPEN WHEEL RACING – F1
Just a week further down the road of the 2025 F1 season and we’re already coming on the second event – the Chinese Grand Prix. The last installment in this series took you through qualifying in Australia, so we’ll pick up from there.
ROUND #1, LOUIS VUITTON AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX
Next Round: Lenovo Japanese Grand Prix, Suzuka Circuit (Apr 3 – Apr 6)
Sauber Australian Grand Prix Race Results
Team: Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber
Series: Formula 1
Drivers: #27 Niko Hulkenberg (P7, 6 Points) & #5 Gabriel Bortoleto (DNF, 0 Points)
Circuit: Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit / 5.303 km
Car: Sauber C45
Video: Race Highlights, Driver Reactions, Rookie Roundup
Rain during Round 1 in Melbourne meant chaos that Sauber was able to capitalize upon, with #27 Nico Hulkenberg nabbing more points (6) with his seventh place finish than the team managed to accrue all of last season.
In the meantime, rookie driver Gabriel Bortoleto came on strong and closely matching his teammate, though slid off in the rain with about 10 laps left in the race. In fact, Bortoleto’s fastest race lap (1:24.192) was slightly faster than his more experienced teammate (1:25.243).
These opening points place Sauber in sixth place in the Constructor’s Championship.
Beat Zehnder, Director Signature Programs & Operations:
“Today’s race showcased everything that makes Formula One so special-unpredictable weather, thrilling overtakes, exciting maneuvers, and, unfortunately, a few crashes as well. Huge congratulations to both drivers for their performances, and especially to Nico for securing his first points for the team. It was a strong collective effort throughout the entire weekend. The team executed really well, making the right calls in changing conditions and laying the foundation for this result. While this is a great step forward, we remain focused on addressing the challenges we faced to ensure we can consistently fight for points.”
Nico Hulkenberg (Car #27)::
Race result: 7th
Fastest lap: 1:25.243 (Lap 43)
Strategy & Pit Stops: Start (New Inter) – Lap 33 (New Medium) – Lap 44 (New Inter)
“That’s an absolutely positive result for the team. It definitely puts a smile on my face. We didn’t see that coming yesterday after our qualifying performance. Under the challenging conditions today, we didn’t make any mistakes and had a couple of good strategy calls. It was very difficult to keep that car on track and read the conditions. Street circuits under these circumstances are very unforgiving. You are constantly on the edge. On the intermediate tires in the first half of the race I was struggling quite a bit. It was a matter of just staying in the race and waiting for our opportunity. The safety car then obviously put us back in the race for the points, when it started to rain towards the end. We managed to pit exactly in the right moment ahead of others. Sometimes you got to be lucky. With others having some trouble, we stayed clean and rewarded ourselves with this nice six points. I would like to thank the entire team for the hard work to make that happen.”
Gabriel Bortoleto (Car #5):
Race result: DNF
Fastest lap: 1:24.192 (Lap 43)
Strategy & Pit Stops: Start (New Inter) – Lap 33 (New Medium) – Lap 44 (New Inter)
“Unfortunately, the race didn’t end as we had hoped – which is a shame, as things were going quite well for me up until that moment. Once the Safety Car period ended, I found myself at the very back, tried to recover, but touched the kerb and ultimately ended up in the wall. We knew anything could happen in conditions like these; we gave it everything but pushed a little too hard. On the other hand, I’m happy for Nico and the team for scoring points today: he did an amazing job, and everyone deserved it, both trackside and back at our HQ in Hinwil. All in all, I think it’s safe to say my debut weekend went well aside from this, especially considering my qualifying result yesterday. It’s been a weekend of learning, getting to know the team and its dynamics even better.”
ROUND #2, CHINESE GRAND PRIX
Next Round: Lenovo Japanese Grand Prix, Suzuka Circuit (Apr 3 – Apr 6)
Sidenote: What is a Sprint race? In short (literally), it’s a shorter 100 km race that lasts about 30 minutes. On Sprint weekends, it tends to be a Saturday smaller event compared to the main Grand Prix race on Sunday. A Sprint has its own qualifying and practice sessions, and will also net championship points for position 1-8. This season, Sprint events will be held in Shanghai, Miami, Spa-Francorchamps, Austin, Sao Paulo and Lusail. Get the full rundown on F1.com HERE.
Sauber Chinese Grand Prix Sprint Qualifying Results
Team: Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber
Series: Formula 1
Drivers: #27 Niko Hulkenberg & #5 Gabriel Bortoleto
Circuit: Shanghai International Circuit / 5.451 km
Car: Sauber C45
Video: Qualifying Highlights, Driver Reactions
Sauber elected to focus on data collection and initial setup for the Shanghai International Circuit going into the lead-up to this Shanhai’s Sprint event. Gabriel Bortoleto secured P14 in Sprint qualifying while Nico Hulkenberg secured P19.
Beat Zehnder, Director Signature Programs & Operations:
“Gabriel did a good job in the only practice session, learning a track he had never raced on before and making steady improvements throughout the session, as well as in SQ1. It was a really good step for him, and a good performance today. Nico was also looking strong, confirming his promising practice showing, and was on course to progress, but we weren’t able to keep up the same performance in the final sector, when the tyres became a bit too hot, and the couple of tenths he lost were enough not to make the cut. It’s very tight out there and this result shows just how every detail has to be there if you want to achieve a good result. We will now prepare for tomorrow’s Sprint, as well as make use of the knowledge we gained today to prepare the main Qualifying session.”
Nico Hulkenberg (Car #27)::
FP1: 6th / 1:32.507 (21 laps)
SQ1: 19th / 1:32.675 (6 laps)
“Unfortunately, it was a short Sprint Qualifying session for me. I think the first lap looked promising, but on the second run, many drivers managed to improve their lap times, whereas we didn’t. We’ll need to look into the data to understand what happened and how we can make further gains. This morning in free practice my lap looked pretty competitive, but for some reason, we weren’t able to replicate that performance in this afternoon’s session.”
Gabriel Bortoleto (Car #5):
FP1: 19th / 1:33.822 (24 laps)
SQ1: 1:32.539 (6 laps)
SQ2: 14th / 1:32.564 (6 laps)
“It’s been an encouraging start to the weekend, and a solid sprint qualifying session overall. SQ1 went well, and in SQ2, I gave it everything, but closing the six-tenths gap to SQ3 was always going to be a challenge – I am still satisfied with the result we brought home. The windy conditions made it tricky at times, but overall, I’m happy with the progress made throughout the day.”
Sauber Chinese Grand Prix Sprint Race and Grand Prix Qualifying Results
Team: Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber
Series: Formula 1
Drivers: #27 Niko Hulkenberg & #5 Gabriel Bortoleto
Circuit: Shanghai International Circuit / 5.451 km
Car: Sauber C45
Video: Sprint Highlights, Driver Reactions Sprint, Qualifying Highlights, Driver Reactions Qualifying
During the Sprint race, both Sauber cars were involved in an incident with Jack Doohan’s Alpine, contributing to a finish at the back of the pack for Bortoleto (18th) and Hulkenberg (19th) This also meant a scramble by the team to turn the cars around for the Grand Prix qualifying session.
During qualifying, Bortoleto exited during the Qualifying 1 (Q1) session securing P19, Hulkenberg advanced through the Qualifying 2 (Q2) session and narrowly missed a spot in the the Qualifying 3 (Q3) session, securing P12.
Beat Zehnder, Director Signature Programs & Operations:
“It was a busy day today, as it always is on a Sprint Saturday, but the team as a whole did a good job to gain performance and give us an improved chance for tomorrow’s race. The morning session was challenging, as we didn’t have the pace we needed to make progress, but the data we collected, both yesterday and today, allowed us to prepare better for this afternoon’s Qualifying. Gabriel missed the cut to make it to his third consecutive Q2 for two and a half tenths, mostly as his warm-up lap was compromised as he ended up too close to Lewis [Hamilton]. We know the key to performance on the single lap is tyre preparation, and these conditions were not ideal for him to extract the full potential of the car, especially in such a close field. Nico, on the other hand, was agonisingly close to a place in Q3, and missed out by just 0.04s. It’s always frustrating to miss out by such a small margin, but it’s promising to see the improvement we have made throughout the weekend. Now we have to keep pushing, find some more performance and get ready for what is going to be an interesting race tomorrow.”
Nico Hulkenberg (Cả #27):
Sprint: 19th
Fastest lap: 1:36.529 (Lap 4)
Tires: Medium Used
Q1: 1:31.921 (9 laps)
Q2: 12th / 1:31.632 (6 laps)
“That was probably close to the maximum we could achieve today. My final lap in Q2 wasn’t perfect with the windy conditions causing a mini mistake in sector one, which likely cost me a shot at Q3. However, l’m pretty pleased with P12 in Quali this afternoon, as the connection with the car was the best l’ve had all weekend: it was a great team effort to come back from a difficult Sprint and we made some good changes to improve the car. Tomorrow is going to be a challenging race, but we’ve giver ourselves a good chance to be in the fight!
Gabriel Bortoleto (Car #5):
Sprint: 18th
Fastest lap: 1:37.475 (Lap 3)
Tyres: Medium Used
Q1: 19th / 1:32.141 (9 laps)
“My first Sprint weekend continues to provide me with important learning opportunities. This morning, despite a decent starting place on the grid, we unfortunately struggled with tyre degradation and weren’t able to capitalise on the good work we had done The mix olat lege gi meat and the competin, tick ode manade her polion chaleong Stdave age to enjoying racing on this circuit so far, and we got to learn something more that will turn useful in the race on Sunday. Qualifying has been a frustrating one for me: I got caught in traffic on the outlap, which ended up compromising my final push attempt. It’s a shame, because the car had been feeling good, and we had been making progress – we could realistically have had a shot at Q2. But that’s qualifying – sometimes things just don’t fall into place. The focus now is on tomorrow, making the most of what we’ve learned today, and fighting for every position in the race.”
SPORTSCAR RACING – GT3 Customer Racing
IMSA MICHELIN PILOT CHALLENGE: ROUND #2, MOBIL 1 TWELVE HOURS OF SEBRING
Next Round: Weathertech Raceway (May 9-11)
Sebring Brings the Bumps for Precision Racing LA
Team: Precision Racing LA
Series: IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge
Driver: Ryan Eversly & Celso Neto (#7), Megan Tomlinson & Ron Tomlinson (#37)
Circuit: Sebring International Raceway / 6.021 km
Car: RS 3 LMS TCR
Though they lead laps and exhibited impressive pace, fuel consumption issues prevented both Precision Racing LA Audi RS 3s from completing the full race distance. Ryan Eversly and Celso Neto finished ninth in the #7 Audi RS 3 LMS while Megan Tomlinson and Ron Tomlinson finished 11th in the #37 RS 3.
IMSA Reveals 2026 Schedule along with Extension of TCR Agreement
Series: IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge
Car: RS 3 LMS TCR
IMSA revealed its 2026 season calendar at the 12 Hours of Sebring, confirming a 10-race schedule continuing with the same 11 venues as 2025. For the IMSA Pilot Challenge where Audi customer campaigns continue to compete for 2025, this will be a ten-race schedule also continuing with the same venues. The Michelin Pilot Challenge also extends the duration of its Mid-Ohio round, bumping it up to a four-hour endurance format as is already the case at Daytona.
In addition, IMSA also confirmed it will extend its agreement with the WSC Group, owner of the TCR trademark, to continue the CRC class as part of the Michelin Pilot Challenge Series through 2028. In 2025, four manufacturers compete in the TCR class, including entries from Audi, CUPRA, Honda and Hyundai, though a total of 16 manufacturers are homologated to compete in the class around the world.
GT WORLD CHALLENGE EUROPE
Next Round: Circuit Paul Riccard (Apr 11-13)
Three-Car Audi Line-up Confirmed for Tresor Attempto Racing
Team: Tresor Attempto Racing
Series: GT World Challenge Europe
Drivers: Audrey Mukovoz, Max Hofer, Alexey Nosov, Dylan Pereira, Leonardo Moncini, Sebastian Øgaard, Ricardo Cazzaniga, Ezequiel Perez Companc, Alex Aka, Alberto Di Folco
Car: R8 LMS GT3
Tresor Attempto racing returns to the GT World Challenge Europe this season with a trio of Audi R8s – one each for the Gold, Silver and Bronze Cup classes. They’ll contest both Sprint and Endurance series.
MOTUL 12 HOURS OF SEPANG, SEPANG INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT
B-Quik Absolute Racing 4th Overall at 12 Hours of Sepang
Team: B-Quik Absolute Racing, 326 Racing Team, Climax Racing, Champion Motor Sport, HZO Fortis Racing by Absolute Racing
Series: N/A, Stand Alone Event
Drivers: Henk Kiks, Akash Nandy, Sandy Stuvik, Wu Yifan, Lai Jingwen, Liu Zichen, Xu Zheyu, Li Dongsheng, Li Donghui, Lu Wei, Ling Kang, Zhou Liyuan, Tse Kahing, Phillip Tang, Roy Tang, Chan Chichung, Haziq Oh, Hairie Oh, Aaron Lim
Circuit: Sepang International Circuit
Car: R8 LMS GT3
B-Quik Absolute Racing finished fourth at the 12 Hours of Sepang, missing the podium by less than 2 second after 328 laps. All five R8 LMS GT3s in contention completed with Malaysian endurance race, with 326 Racing taking 3rd place on the GT3 Am podium.
Results
Pro-Am
4. Henk Kiks/Akash Nandy/Sandy Stuvik/B-Quik Absolute Racing
Am
3. Wu Yifan/Lai Jingwen/Liu Zichen/Xu Zheyu/326 Racing Team
4. Li Dongsheng/Li Donghui/Lu Wei/Ling Kang/Zhou Liyuan/Climax Racing
5. Tse Kahing/Phillip Tang/Roy Tang/Chan Chichung/Champion Motor Sport
6. Haziq Oh/Hairie Oh/Aaron Lim/HZO Fortis Racing by Absolute Racing
SRO GT CUP: ROUND #1, SHANGHAI INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT
Next Round: TBA Zhuhai International Circuit, China
Teams: Harmony Racing / Harmony Winhere Racing, LH World Racing Team, Nova Racing / Incipient Racing
Series: SRO GT Cup
Driver: Chen Weian, Miguel Lei, Air Tong
Circuit: Sebring International Raceway / 6.021 km
Car: RS 3 LMS GT4
Audi R8 LMS GT4 Set for Inaugural SRO GT Cup Round During Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix Event Weekend
Three Audi R8 LMS GT4s will join a 33-car grid fielding cars from ten different brands in this new GT4-dedicated series, including drivers Chen Weian (Harmony Racing / Harmony Winhere Racing), Miguel Lei (LH World Racing Team) and Air Tong (Nova Racing / Incipient Racing). The new series will be comprised of four rounds culminating at the Macau Grand Prix.
UPCOMING ROUNDS: WEEK 13 (MAR 23-29)
Sidenote: See full season calendar HERE.
21-23 – F1 Heineken Chinese Grand Prix, Shanghai International Circuit, China – F1
21-23 – SRO GT Cup, Shanghai International Circuit, China – GT4
25-26 – International GT Open, Winter Test, Circuito de Barcelona-Catalunya, Spain – GT3
28-30 – GT America, Sonoma Raceway, USA 🇺🇸 – GT3
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