£949m F1 team boss claims they have a ‘racing car now’ after solid Canadian Grand Prix display

The 2025 Canadian Grand Prix was a largely uneventful affair. But the final few laps sparked chaos on track and brought several ramifications for the title race.

McLaren duo Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris collided for the first time on lap 67, with the latter retiring from the race. The Brit tried to pass on the inside down the main straight, but the gap was not there as he hit the back of his teammate’s car and slammed into the barrier.

Norris admitted full responsibility for the crash as he now falls 22 points behind Piastri in the drivers’ standings. Max Verstappen edged closer to the championship leader by finishing second at the Canadian Grand Prix behind George Russell, who claimed his fourth career win.

Radio communication plagued Ferrari again as Lewis Hamilton was left bemused by the team’s tyre strategy in qualifying. Charles Leclerc was angered by the pit wall going against his wishes and ran a two-stop strategy, with the Ferrari duo finishing P5 and P6.

Fernando Alonso recorded his best finish of the season with seventh and his second points finish in a row. Nico Hulkenberg matched that feat by finishing an impressive P8 for Sauber in Montreal.

Jonathan Wheatley says Sauber have a ‘racing car now’ after Canadian Grand Prix points finish

Sauber have benefitted hugely from their upgrades in Barcelona. Hulkenberg finished an incredible P5 in Spain after being eliminated in Q1.

The German carried the momentum into the Canadian GP as he scored another four points for the team. Gabriel Bortoleto had another encouraging performance with 14th, as the Hinwil outfit move nine points clear of Alpine in the standings.

Team principal Jonathan Wheatley, alongside Mattia Binotto, have made huge strides forward behind the scenes that have seen Sauber score five times more than their 2024 points tally already in 2025. Speaking via Speed City Broadcasting, he says the team have a ‘racing car now’.

“I’m really, really, really pleased. It was a strong team performance all round again, two weeks in a row. All the right conversations being had in the pit wall and Mattia and the team back in Hinwil have given us a racing car now,” he said.

“Nico drove, again, with an incredible, measured race. He hung back, he saw that incident happening on lap one, made two positions and really held it to the end, just delivered a flawless race.

“Gabriel, again, we started on the hard tyre with him. I don’t know how many laps he did on that, 44 laps or something or other. Two clean pit stops, and we come out of here with four more points.”

READ MORE: All you need to know about Sauber from team principal to 2026 Audi future

Jonathan Wheatley explains what Sauber must do to score points consistently in 2025

With back-to-back points finishes for Hulkenberg, Sauber are in a good position to fight amongst the midfield in 2025. It will put them in good stead for Audi’s arrival in 2026.

What will be key for the £949m-valued F1 team is to find a consistent formula. Wheatley stressed that Sauber ‘must do the basics right’ to stay in the points.

Asked if scoring points is now the target, he replied: “Well, they’re the regular target anyway! That’s why we’re here and doing what we’re doing.

“Look, I think we were in a position to capitalise today and that’s what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to be in a position to capitalise on that and we need to do everything right.

“We need to do the basics right, we need to do everything right and I think this weekend we got nearly everything right.”