Change requires, before becoming Audi, Sauber has already announced that its drivers Bottas and Zhou will leave the team at the end of the season. Hülkenberg and Bortoleto will replace them.
Finnish drivers Valtteri Bottas and Chinese Zhou Guanyu, who have not yet scored any points in 2024, will leave Sauber at the end of the season, the F1 team, which will become Audi in 2026, announced on Wednesday.
Bottas, 35, and Zhou, 25, will both leave the team based in Hinwill, Switzerland, after three seasons at the wheel of an Alfa Romeo and then Sauber single-seater. The two seats are already filled for next season since the German Nico Hülkenberg, currently with Haas, signed a contract in April “several years” and the Brazilian Gabriel Bortoleto, only 20 years old, Bortoleto is currently leading the Formula 2 world championship, the antechamber of F1, at the wheel of a single-seater from the British team Invicta Racing.
Coming from the Mercedes team, with which he won 10 Grands Prix between 2017 and 2021, Valtteri Bottas, who has competed in more than 240 races in F1, “has been a driving force, lifting his teammate and the team through his unrivaled experience and enthusiasm, his invaluable technical expertise and his fighting spirit”greeted Sauber-Ferrari in a press release. But, “after open and constructive discussions, we concluded that the conditions could not be met and we agreed that it was time to separate”added team boss Mattia Binotto.
As for Zhou, the first Chinese driver in the history of F1, he and his teammate formed a pair “solid”according to Sauber, insisting that both parties were “determined” to end the season “in the best way”. “I will now focus on the next stage of my career: I still have a lot of fights to fight and I am eager to continue progressing”commented Zhou.
With these two drivers, Alfa Romeo had its best season in 2022, finishing 6th (out of 10) with 55 points, before experiencing a regression – 9th with 16 points in 2023, and still no points on the clock this year.
The Sauber team will become Audi in 2026, a season which will be marked by a change in engine regulations in F1. The brand with the four rings, which is part of the Volkswagen galaxy, has never before entered the premier category of motorsport.
