F1 Today | Sauber officially sign second driver, and 2025 grid prediction
F1 News
For months, there have been rumours surroding Sauber as to who would join Nico Hulkenberg for the 2025 season and join the Audi project for 2026. Now, those rumours have been ended as they offially sign their second driver. And with that news, GPblog take a look into what decsions may be made for the final seat for next aeason.
Bortoleto joins Sauber for 2025
There was lots of talk as to who would join Sauber for 2025 and therefore be a part of Audi's F1 project for 2026. Nico Hulkenberg was signed early from Haas, but the second seat was up for grabs. Now, that decision has been made, and it is Gabriel Bortoleto who will be joining the Swiss team.
The current championship leader in Formula 2 has been showing great potential, and Sauber COO Mattia Binotto made the choice to sign the Brazilian. As a result, he will no longer be a part of the McLaren junior team. He will become the first Brazilian on the grid since Pietro Fittipaldi after he replaced Romain Grosjean after his horror crash in 2020, and the first full-time Brazilian driver since Felipe Massa, who retired in 2017.
To find out more about the young talent, be sure to read GPblog's article here!
Futures of Bottas, Zhou and Schumacher up in the air
With Bortoleto joining Sauber next year and finishing their lineup for 2025, it means that Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu will no longer be on the grid in Formula 1. The future for the Chinese driver may not be so clear, but for the Finn, there is a serious chance he will return to Mercedes.
After partnering Lewis Hamilton from 2017 to 2021 at the German team, Bottas may make a return as the reserve and test driver for the 2025 season. However, even though he may not be involved in F1 next year, Bottas seemed in high spirits with this send-off message, encapsulating the Finn perfectly.
And for Mick Schumacher, who was a serious contender for the second seat before Binnoto made the choice of signing Bortoleto, his F1 future looks to be all but done. However, he has been competing for Alpine in the World Endurance Championships this season, and that will look to continue after he missed out on the Sauber seat.
What decision will Red Bull and VCARB make?
So with Sauber now finally signing their second driver for the 2025 season, only one seat remains available, one that no one could guess who will take it. It's the VCATB seat alongside Yuki Tsunoda.
First of all, we do not know whether Yuki Tsunoda will stay at VCARB. Will he make the move to Red Bull if Sergio Perez is sacked due to his poor performance in 2024? Or, will that Red Bull seat go to Liam Lawson, coming into the VCARB setup with six races remaining and impressing with his performances?
Could Sergio Perez stay ut at Red Bull and mean that Tsunoda and Lawson will stay at Red Bulls junior team for the 2025 season? Or will a departing Perez mean the Austrian team will dip into their huge junior driver pool?
These are all questions that need to be answered to allow VCARB to finalise their second driver for 2024, and it is all explained by GPblog in the article above!
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