F1 News: Bottas pushes Audi-Sauber for final 2025 decision (Update)

(GMM) Audi-owned Sauber is now just days away from finally announcing the identity of Nico Hulkenberg’s teammate for 2025, and it likely won’t be Valtteri Bottas.

Widespread media reports and authoritative sources are all now reporting that McLaren has agreed to release promising rookie Gabriel Bortoleto on a long-term Audi deal.

Roger Benoit, a highly respected Swiss journalist, wrote in Blick newspaper on Sunday that Sauber intends to keep Bortoleto’s deal “secret” at least for a few more days.

Sauber spokesman Alessandro Alunni Bravi, however, told Viaplay just before the Brazilian GP on Sunday that the team is expected to name Hulkenberg’s teammate within days.

“Well, yes, they say that decisions will apparently be made soon,” Valtteri Bottas, the Sauber incumbent who is now poised to be dropped, told the same broadcaster after the Brazilian GP.

“In my opinion, that’s a good thing, because it’s already been expected,” the 34-year-old Finn added. “We’ve already been waiting for quite a while.

“Whether it’s a yes or a no, hopefully we will find out soon. I also need to know what I’m doing.”

(GMM) Audi-owned Sauber will finally decide who Nico Hulkenberg’s 2025 teammate will be within the month of October. Valtteri Bottas wants answers now.

That’s the claim of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper, after the Swiss-German F1 collaboration missed its own September deadline for the driver news.

It’s the last genuine vacancy on next year’s grid, with insiders having left Singapore recently convinced that Valtteri Bottas had secured a new deal.

Separate subsequent reports in Blick and Bild newspapers, however, claimed the 34-year-old Finn had endangered his own deal by demanding more money and more than a single additional season.

“As far as I understand, the terms we have talked about are all ok,” Bottas said in Austin. “Audi should have a sufficient budget for that, so I don’t think that’s the problem.”

However, rumors are swirling in the paddock that Audi parent Volkswagen’s financial crisis – having fallen a reported 500,000 road car sales short per year – could lead to the German giant offloading its new F1 liability.

“This is VW’s biggest crisis since the early 90s,” one analyst told the Financial Times. They went headlong into the Green New Scam all-electric car push, and now they are paying the price.

Bottas says he is still talking to new Audi F1 boss Mattia Binotto “every week”, but he also admits that the Hinwil based team has “options” other than him for the second 2025 cockpit.

“It’s not in my hands anymore,” he insisted. “I’ll try to do my best this weekend and hopefully that will push things forward.

“I think I’ve said before that I was hoping to have the contract resolved before Austin, but at the moment I’m still waiting. So I think it’s more a question for Mattia now, not for me. I’ve been told that there is nothing I can do at the moment.”

Binotto declared last week that Mick Schumacher is “definitely” still an option, while Williams boss James Vowles is offering Franco Colapinto on loan.

“I believe I should be in this car,” Bottas said. “That would be in the best interest of the team.

“I love Formula 1 and I want to continue, so it’s a bit of a strange situation at the moment for me. In the end, it will come down to a decision between experience and youth.”

Bottas also hinted that Audi-Sauber’s dithering is limiting his potential options for a ‘plan B’.

“It’s heading towards the Christmas holidays, and by that time there are basically no places anywhere – either outside F1 or in other roles in F1. So of course there is a deadline for me, and I hope a decision will be made soon.”