Having seen his seat offered to Carlos Sainz, Valtteri Bottas could breathe a sigh of relief when the Spaniard elected to drive for Williams next season not Sauber soon to be the Audi works team. The ex-Ferrari man had a choice of two F1 manufacturers in Alpine and Audi yet chaos in both organisations saw Carlos turn them both down.

This should have been good news for Valtterii Bottas who was also in the running for the Williams drive in 2025. Audi having recruited Nico Hulkenberg and made Sainz a public target apparently wanted experienced F1 drivers as they enter F1 in 2026.

With Sainz making his future clear right as the summer break began, Mattia Binotto and Jonathan Wheatley – the newly poached man from Red Bull who is set to become team principal – have now had some time to consider their future options.

 

 

 

F2 winners not making F1

Neither Zhou Guangu nor Bottas have contracts for next season and Sauber at present are bottom of the constructors’ table without a single point to their name as yet. However, neither would feel particularly wanted by Audi given the remaining seat available for next year was publicly offered to another driver.

Zhou remained with the team for this season partly due to a cash crisis with Audi funds not flowing as expected. The Chinese driver brings a reported $30m in sponsorship from his Chinese backers but with Audi acquiring 100% of Sauber in March, the German auto brand will not be held at anyone’s behest because of finance.

Despite neither driver making it into the top ten in a Grand Prix, Guangyu is having a much worse season than Bottas who has out qualified his team mate 13-1. Zhou is surely out of F1 alongside Logan Sargeant, both rookies who joined the sport without winning F2.

In fact winners of the F2 feeder series for Formula One have not been finding a route to the top table in recent years, but when the category was rebranded from GP3 to F2 in 2017 this wasn’t the case.

Russell grasps data “better” than “immature” Hamilton says his former engineer

 

 

 

Leclerc best ever F2 driver

In year one Charles Leclerc was promoted by Ferrari to Sauber and the following season it was George Russell who was offered a drive at Williams. The following year Nyck de Vries won F2 and went on to become Formula E champion with Mercedes although he only managed to eventually get ten races with Red Bull’s sister team Alpha Tauri.

The next two winners Mick Schumacher and Oscar Piastri joined the exclusive F1 club, although the German sone of legend Michael survived just two seasons before being replaced by Hulkenberg at Haas F1.

2022 F2 winner Felipe Drugovitch is currently reserve driver for Aston Martin and racing in the European Le Mans series in LMP2 while last season’s champion Theo Porchaire has raced this year in Indycar.

Now a report from UOL Esporte reveals the drivers currently in the running to partner Nico Hulkenberg at Sauber/Audi next season. Despite experienced drivers Kevin Magnussen and Valtteri Bottas being available Audi are said to be now considering F2 driver Jack Doohan.

Ferrari reject Newey but a potential hopeful joins the fray

 

 

 

Doohan ranks alongside Tsunoda and Zhou

Like Zhou Guangu and Yuki Tsunoda, Doohan never won the F2 or F3 title though he finished P3 in his third and final season last year in Formula 2. More worryingly Doohan does not sit in the pantheon of F2 drivers with decent win percentages in the series.

Charles Leclerc has the best rate of close to 32% win rate and George Russell is close behind on 29% with Oscar Piastri in third with 26%. The rest of the drivers top out with Oliver Bearman Robert Schwartzman on 13% and Doohan has a win rate just above 10%.

Yuki Tsunoda had a 12% F2 win rate and Gunagyu Zhou was a mere 7%. Doohan is Alpine’s top academy driver and following them losing out on their own Oscar Piastri, of course Alpine too are seriously considering promoting their junior driver.

The question is whether given Doohan has had no better than an average F2 career, how will he cope with the rigours of driving a Formula One car?

Repercussions as Horner affair not over

 

 

 

FP1 washouts for Alpine junior

Both Doohan’s FP1 outings in the Alpine this season have been rain affected and so the team has no real data by which they can bench line test the American’s performance in an F1 car.

The report indicates neither Bottas or Zhou are in the running as far as Binotto is concerned bu also reveals other junior drivers now being considered. Liam Lawson who stood in last season for the injured Daniel Ricciardo is said to be on Audi’s radar, although as a Red Bull academy driver Dr. Helmut Marko is claiming he’ll be in one of their four seats in 2025.

Ralf Schumacher leaks WhatsApp messages and calls his wife a liar

 

 

 

Audi switch driver requirements

Brazilian junior Mariel Bortoleto who is second in this seasons F2 standings behind Red Bull’s Isaac Hadjar is on Audi’s list and his route to F1 is presently blocked by McLaren’s star duo Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

It is surprising to discover Audi are now extending their criteria beyond derivers with F1 experience, yet given technical director James Key claimed earlier this year that the integration of Sauber/Audi may only happen in 2027 a young driver does have time to learn the ropes.

F1 journalist Matt CouchSpeaking on the Pit Talk Podcast, journalist Mat Coch believes Alpine have already recruited a new driver for 2025. “I’m led to believe that Jack Doohan has signed a contract [with Alpine] that hasn’t been announced.”

Further if Doohan does drive for the Swiss based team for two seasons until the potential of Audi as a front runner is clear for other drivers to see, it could benefit Audi. By then their target Carlos Sainz would have had two years to evaluate the Williams project and know whether the team is making the kind of progress James Vowles is promising.

FIA breaks silence over teams accused of illegal brakes

 

 

 

F1 and a potential ban on gambling advertising

Formula One used to race across the muddy fields of Europe until a certain Bernie Ecclestone grabbed the reigns to the commercial rights to the sport. As the teams began to realise the opportunity of advertising ne particular industry dominated the liveries of the cars – that of the tobacco industry which dominated F1 for decades.

Finally in 2006 F1 officially banned tobacco advertising, its decision being heavily influenced increasing pressure from the European Union which had set a deadline for sport taking place within its jurisdiction to be free from tobacco advertising.

Teams played with clever reworks of the name of the tobacco company and used their liveries to reflect the colours of their sponsor but the FIA stamped this out and a new business model was required for the sport… READ MORE