Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber has unveiled its 2025 Formula 1 challenger, the C45, with Technical Director James Key expressing confidence in the team’s development direction.
Sauber were part of the F1 75 Live launch event held by Formula One last Tuesday where they unveiled the livery of their 2025 single seater and Key, who joined the team from McLaren back in 2023, discussed the new car from Hinwil and the pointed out the work done.
Key said: "It’s always exciting to see a new car come to life, especially after many months of work in simulation, development, design, and manufacturing.
"The C45 represents a natural evolution of the car that ended last season with some stronger performance, but with some key refinements in areas where we saw the most potential for improvement.
"The team has worked extremely hard over the winter to take the next step forward, and we believe we have made solid progress.
"Of course, we won’t truly know where we stand until we hit the track, but I am confident we have taken the right approach and are moving in a good direction," he maintained.
Balancing 2025 and 2026 development
With a major regulation overhaul coming in 2026, teams face the challenge of managing current-season performance while preparing for a new era of F1. That especially applied to Sauber who will be morphing into Audi F1 as the German manufacturer will also be producing its own power unit.
"It’s a challenging balancing act," Key pointed out, "as we need to remain competitive in the present while also preparing for the future.
"The 2026 regulations will bring a fundamental shift in car design, and we have spent the last 16 months preparing for the critical design and development period in 2025. By regulation, it is only this year that the 2026 car’s aerodynamics can be developed, so the whole project is being fast-tracked during 2025.
"At the same time, we cannot take our foot off the gas with the C45, as the battle in the field is incredibly tight, and every tenth of a second counts.
"We have a structured plan in place that allows us to dedicate the right resources to both programmes without compromising our ability to develop throughout the season," the engineer revealed.
Shaping the 2026 Concept
As to the progress done on the 2026 car, Key acknowledged: "We are still in the early stages of defining our 2026 concept given the restrictions on aero development until now.
"But the initial work started some time ago with the known 2026 Power Unit regulation changes together with our colleagues at Neuburg, combined with tracking the 2026 chassis regulations as they developed throughout 2024.
"A lot of speculative work was undertaken in 2024 as the regulations matured in areas such as car architecture, weight reduction measures, tyre characteristics, and simulation to ensure a continuously running and up-to-date car development project in preparation for 2025.
"The key is to establish a solid foundation that allows us to maximise performance once the finer details of the regulations are better understood."
C45: Evolution of the C44
Putting his focus back to 2025, Key explained the process behind the C45, starting form the C44, which was a woeful machine with which the team finished last in the 2024 F1 constructors' championship.
He said: "The C45 builds on some of the key concepts we introduced with the C44, but with fresh thinking and new directions too.
"Although last year’s car had its difficulties, especially in the middle of the season, we managed to work through many of the challenges and found a more promising direction towards the end of the year.
"One of the major changes is in the aerodynamic package, where we have taken the directions we developed late last season and built on them further.
"We have also made mechanical improvements to enhance handling and consistency across different track conditions.
"Overall, the focus has been on extracting more performance based on a robust platform with an evolution of late 2024 season updates and new thinking in some key areas," Key stated.
Strengthening technical and operational foundations
He went on, talking about the changes the team is undergoing as they bid to move up the grid, he added: "We have been working on strengthening several key areas to make the team more competitive in both the short and long term.
"On the technical side, we are continuously investing in our aerodynamic and simulation tools to ensure we are operating at a high level of effectiveness. We are also expanding and refining our processes to improve our development rate during the season, as that is crucial in a tight midfield battle.
"Operationally, we are working to enhance communication and collaboration across departments to make sure our design and manufacturing processes are as streamlined as possible.
"We are combining the busy activity of our simultaneous 2025 and 2026 programmes together with an equally busy period of growing, developing, and structuring our team for the future, so there is a great deal going on and a lot of positive energy within the technical groups at Hinwil at present.
Midfield battle and in-season development
"In-season development is absolutely critical in a competitive field," Key went on, "where small gains can mean the difference between fighting for points or being further down the order.
"Despite some of our difficulties in 2024, the field remained incredibly close, and we were in that mix, with a tenth of a second or two making a big difference in qualifying position and on many occasions hundredths of a second splitting lap times.
"We have an ambitious but structured development plan in place for 2025, with continuous updates expected throughout the season. A big focus is on the efficiency and effectiveness of development, considering the careful 2025/2026 balancing act we need to undertake.
"We are also further refining our correlation between wind tunnel, CFD, and on-track data to ensure that what we develop works as predicted when it hits the track."
Sauber will soon find out if the work they have done over the winter has paid off, Key set the goals, saying: "We want to take a clear step forward from where we finished last season.
"The goal is to be consistently competitive in the midfield and fight for points at every race. We’ve put a lot of effort into improving the overall balance and drivability of the car, which should help us extract more from it over a race weekend.
"Fans can expect to see a hungry and determined team pushing to get the most out of every opportunity. We know the competition will be fierce, but we’re ready to take on the challenge and make the most of the C45’s potential," he concluded.
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