• Nico Hulkenberg has been announced as the first confirmed driver for Audi’s 2026 F1 entry
  • The current Haas F1 driver will drive for Audi’s own Sauber team for the first time in 2025 and help develop Audi’s own car
  • Hülkenburg drove for Sauber F1 in the early 2010s and also won at Le Mans

We’re still more than a year away from seeing an Audi-branded car on the grid at a Grand Prix, but at least we now know who will be behind the wheel when that happens. Audi has announced that Nico Hulkenberg will help the automaker fight for top honors in 2026.

But before that happens, Hulkenberg will spend the 2025 season driving for Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber, which Audi acquired earlier this year and which will eventually be converted into a full Audi factory team. The 36-year-old German will also help Audi develop the new car, which it will field in its first-ever F1 campaign and Grand Prix program since the Auto Union days of the 1930s.

Related: Audi Sport shows off F1 livery ahead of 2026 launch and announces development of hybrid powertrain

Hulkenberg was a Formula 3, GP2 and A1 Grand Prix champion in the 2000s before moving up to Formula 1 at the start of the next decade. He began his top career at Williams in 2010 and then spent two stints at Force India, with a short spell at Sauber in between. Seats at Racing Point and Aston Martin followed next, and since 2023 Hulkenburg has been a full-time driver for Haas F1.

Let’s hope that Audi has set its sights a little higher when selecting its as-yet-unnamed second driver, because despite taking part in 211 Formula 1 races in 14 years, Hülkenberg has never won a race or even been on the podium (he holds the title). Record for most starts without a podium finish).

Nico Hülkenberg will drive for Audi's new F1 team in 2026

Okay, so he hasn’t driven for the top teams, and I’m no F1 expert, but that doesn’t sound like the record of someone you’d want to pin your F1 hopes on as an Audi. That doesn’t mean Hulkenberg isn’t a great driver or winner. During a break from F1 in 2015, he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans on his first attempt behind the wheel of a Porsche 919 Hybrid. His team boss on this occasion was Andreas Seidl, who happens to be a team boss at Sauber and will also hold this position at the Audi F1 team. So maybe there is hope after all.

Note: The vehicle images shown here are of a model car created by Audi to showcase its “launch livery” and not the real car it will race against in 2026.