The Fermi-Hubbard model is a plausible target to be solved by a quantum computer using the variational quantum eigensolver algorithm. However, problem sizes beyond the reach of classical exact diagonalisation are also beyond the reach of current quantum computing hardware. Here we use a simple method which compresses the first nontrivial subcase of the Hubbard model - with one spin-up and one spin-down fermion - enabling larger instances to be addressed using current quantum computing hardware. We implement this method on a superconducting quantum hardware platform for the case of the 2x1 Hubbard model, including error-mitigation techniques, and show that the ground state is found with relatively high accuracy.