Valtteri Bottas will go away Sauber after the 2024 Components 1 season however is known to already be near signing again with Mercedes as its reserve driver from subsequent 12 months.
In what has been an terrible 12 months for Sauber – nonetheless 2024’s solely point-less group – Bottas’s place past the deal he struck when leaving Mercedes on the finish of the 2021 season, when Sauber was branded as Alfa Romeo, was threatened as plans for Audi’s 2026 arrival accelerated.
First, Sauber employed Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg in a deal masking the 2025 season forward of the Audi rebrand for the next 12 months, with Bottas’s team-mate Zhou Guanyu departing the outfit.
Sauber then entered a turbulent interval of administration change, with earlier bosses – former CEO Andrea Seidl and chairman Oliver Hoffmann – axed and ex-Ferrari group boss Mattia Binotto employed as chief working and chief technical officer. Purple Bull sporting director Johnathan Wheatley additionally joined to be Sauber group principal from 2025.
In Brazil final weekend Bottas stated doing a brand new cope with Sauber was nonetheless “what I am pushing for with Mattia”.
However over the Sao Paulo Grand Prix weekend Autosport reported that Components 2 championship chief Gabriel Bortoleto has agreed a deal to race for the Swiss team for subsequent 12 months after it missed out on signing Williams-bound Carlos Sainz, its long-held goal.
Valtteri Bottas, Stake F1 Staff KICK Sauber C44
Picture by: Lubomir Asenov / Motorsport Pictures
“A scenario like that is by no means simple for anybody,” Bottas stated. “However in any case the great and in-depth discussions we had up to now weeks, we realised that the situations to develop this mission collectively weren’t met.
“These previous years with the group have been an unbelievable journey, filled with progress, challenges, and unforgettable moments. I’m grateful for the joint experiences in addition to the belief and assist I’ve felt each step of the way in which.
“Although it’s time to maneuver on, I’ll at all times carry a chunk of this group with me, and I look ahead to seeing what the longer term holds for us each.”
Mattia Binotto, COO & CTO, Sauber Motorsport AG added: “We prolong our deepest gratitude to Valtteri for the previous three years collectively. He has been the embodiment of professionalism, utilizing his huge expertise to assist the group’s progress.
“Valtteri’s dedication and method have been invaluable throughout a pivotal time in our historical past, and the reminiscences of those years will stick with us for a very long time. In contemplating our driver line-up for the approaching seasons, Valtteri was unquestionably a key candidate.
“Along with his combating spirit, he often pushed the automotive past its efficiency limits. Nonetheless, a call needed to be made. After open and constructive discussions, we mutually concluded that ultimate situations couldn’t be met so we agreed that it’s time to half methods. Valtteri will at all times have an open door right here in Hinwil.”
Sauber’s resolution means Bottas’s present F1 racing profession will probably be capped at 10 wins from 246 races, come the top of the present marketing campaign in Abu Dhabi subsequent month.
However he might but see extra motion together with his former group, after saying returning to what he known as the “Mercedes household” at Interlagos was “for certain one choice and I’d think about it”.
Autosport understands that discussions between Mercedes and Bottas have been occurring for a number of weeks, with the squad set to subject a group made up of drivers it has supported all the way in which to F1 – George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli – in 2025.
Though the trail again to the full-time racing driver from a reserve position is troublesome, F1 has had a surge in super-sub appearances lately.
This was turbocharged by the COVID-19 pandemic, with Hulkenberg, specifically, gaining a sequence of sudden appearances for what’s now Aston Martin after leaving Renault at 2019’s finish.
Harm replacements have been required elsewhere and this 12 months Williams axed Logan Sargeant properly earlier than the top of the present marketing campaign, though opted to switch him with its junior driver, Franco Colapinto.
However Hulkenberg’s story is one notably related to Bottas, because it was his common place within the F1 paddock as Aston’s reserve that helped him keep in common contact with then Haas group principal Guenther Steiner and finally to a deal to rejoin the grid as a full-time racer with the American squad in 2023.
It isn’t at the moment recognized when any deal for Bottas to return to Mercedes is perhaps introduced, however Sauber is predicted to be confirming the deal for Bortoleto – at the moment a McLaren junior – this week.