The Formula One drivers’ market roared into life this season with the announcement before the first Grand Prix that Lewis Hamilton was leaving Mercedes for Ferrari in 2025. Since then Fernando Alonso tested the waters and decided there was no option for him of a Red Bull drive and he signed a multi-year contract extension wit Aston Martin.
This week, the brutal side of the sport came into sharp focus, as Sauber announced they had signed Nico Hulkenberg from Haas F1 for next year. As it turns out neither of the current drivers, Valtteri Bottas or Zhou Guangu knew anything of this until it broke in the media.
Sauber take away Bottas engineer
With both the Chinese and Finnish drivers out of contract this year, clearly one of them now will not be remaining with the Swiss based team and neither appeared optimistic about retaining their current drives when interviewed. By reporters in Miami.
“I can’t say anything about whether a second spot on the team is available,” Chinese Guanyu said in Miami. “I think Andreas Seidl is evaluating all his options, including me and Valtteri.”
Bottas who was listed to appear as part of the FIA official press conference didn’t even try to hide his shock and disappointment when asked about the sudden change of his race engineer from this weekend forward.
“I think that’s more a question for the team,” he said when asked why he will no longer have Alex Chan – his engineer since 2022 – at his side in Miami.
Bottas: “these decisions are not in my hands”
“It was quite a sudden change.”
When asked what the sudden change is all about, Bottas answered: “I think it shows that things are changing. Obviously some changes are for the long term.
“I don’t obviously know all the reasons behind every decision, it just tells me that change is happening. People are leaving. People are coming in.
“And obviously, yeah, many of these decisions are not in my hands.”
Red Bull cost cap masterstroke with Newey internal move
Bottas not aware of Hulkenberg signing
The ten times Grand Prix winner admitted he was ‘surprised’ by the news that Hulkenberg had been signed to the team.
“The driver market is starting to move, obviously, and it also kind of makes sense as he’s German. Audi made it pretty clear that they want a German driver, so it’s all good. Let’s see what happens next.”
As the various seats shake out, Bottas will in all likelihood have only the options of driving for Alpine or Haas and he confirms talks are already underway.
“Obviously I’m speaking to multiple teams,” he said. “Some talks have advanced more than the others. So we’ll see.”
Newey: “not signed for another F1 team”
Sainz denies missing Audi deadline
Further, Audi have made it clear they want Carlos Sainz as part of their driver lineup though it was reported a deadline of the 30th April had been given to the Spanish driver to make his mind up.
Asked whether he’d missed the Audi boat by stalling with them over a contract, “No, that’s not true,” the Spaniard insisted in Miami. “As I’ve said, not everything depends on me. There are still some things to wait for.
“But it’s not over between us yet,” Sainz added. “We are negotiating with different people and considering different options.”
Carlos Sainz Snr has connections with Audi from his rally driving days and has talked up the hopes for the incoming manufacture for some time.
Sainz holding out for Red Bull
“He is confident that they will succeed in Formula 1,” said Sainz. “But there are many more factors in my decision.
“I wish them all the best to become another strong team in the sport, no matter whether I end up there or not. I just need more time.”
Carlos Sainz is holding out for a drive at Red Bull should the team decide to part company with Sergio Perez. Yet this season so far, the Mexican driver has not dropped the ball delivering three 1-2’s for Red Bull together with a P3 last time out in China and a P5 in the Australian GP where his RB20 suffered damage.
With the team uncertain as to the long term intentions of Max Verstappen, who has threatened to quit Red Bull, this could well play into Checo’s hands as he now appears most likely to represent the continuity candidate.
Verstappen ‘unhappy’ with Newey
Sainz ‘least favourite’ choice for Verstappen
Yet in just nine races time, the summer break will be upon us and it is then many of the driver announcements are made. Fernando Alonso declared he was leaving Alpine to join Aston Martin, the day after the race before the summer break in 2022.
Sergio then needs to deliver just a handful more of decent results before the decision is made to either retain his services or plumb for those of Carlos Sainz.
Recruiting Sainz would send a message to the Verstappen’s given he is believed to be one of the least preferred by Max as a team mate. The pair were twinned together in their Toro Rosso days which Dr. Helmut Marko described as a “toxic relationship.”
“For a long time, he lived in the shadow of his father, the two-time World Rally Champion,” Marko said of Carlos Jnr.
Honda drop Tsunoda plans for Aston Martin
Sainz/Verstappen relationship was “toxic”
“He was unfairly saddled with the image of being the spoiled son of a racing driver whereas on the contrary, Carlos had to fight consistently to get ahead.
“It was his bad luck to get Max as a team-mate. The atmosphere between the two at Toro Rosso was quite toxic.
“In the setup we had at the time, I couldn’t see a way of keeping him with us and so he moved to Renault, McLaren and then on to Ferrari.”
Shocking COLLAPSE in Red Bull team spirit reported
Sainz would push Verstappen harder
As fellow rookies back in 2015, Sainz performed well against the future triple world champion but a run off mid-season misfortune presented Carlos from challenging Max.
Four consecutive retirements began with electrical failures at the Austrian and British Grands Prix, then a fuel pressure issue at the Hungarian Grand Prix and a power unit issue at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Verstappen finished the year with 49 points but Sainz modest 18 needs to be seen in context. A rematch between these to would whet the appetite of any F1 fan and Sainz appears to offer more of a challenge than the ‘cause no trouble’ option that is Sergio Perez.
Jos Verstappen new broadside for Horner
Max speaks about MEGA Mercedes offe
As Formula One hits the track for its third visit to Miami the noise in the paddock is focused on the Red Bull announcement that Adrian Newey will be leaving the team after twenty years. Timescales are a little blurred, but the consensus is that Newey will be a free agent before his contract expires at the end of 2025.
Max Verstappen was tight lipped over the matter when asked for his thoughts and whether Newey’s decision had forced him to reconsider his own Red Bull future…. READ MORE
