Formula 1 News: Signing with Sauber was a ‘big mistake’ – Bottas (Update)

Underscoring what Valtteri Bottas said below, new team boss Mattia Binotto admits that the Sauber, soon to be Audi challenge, has been greater than originally anticipated.

“When I came in there was not only zero points, but really even no plans nor developments,” Audi’s COO and CTO told Motorsport.com in an exclusive interview. “And that’s what concerned me the most.

“Everything was only focused on ’26, but that was for me somehow a problem because I think that a team needs always to fight on track.

“It’s only by fighting, competing on track, that you can understand how good you’re doing and if whatever you’re doing is going the right direction.

“You need to understand performance. You need to understand weaknesses and strengths, and you need as well to address them. And that’s the real know-how of a team.”

From Binotto’s perspective, the previous management, initially led by Andreas Seidl but then joined by Oliver Hoffmann, was too focused on the longer term picture at the expense of what was happening right now.

“When I joined in August, really, it was like a team that was almost frozen,” added Binotto.

“So while making sure that we had the proper plans in our journey to become a top team in the future, we really needed to boost the team for improvement and possibly already during the current season.

“How important the current season was was not only about not finishing with zero points, because finishing 10th with zero or 10th with four points does not change much.

“But it was more for us to make sure that we have defined the proper direction of development for next season as well – and being energized through the wintertime.

“Today, I can see a team that is more convinced on what’s required, what’s necessary for next season, and hopefully we can further develop the current car.”

“I think that Sauber has been a team in the mindset of survival in the last 10 years, with no more investments and no real expenditure,” he said. “So whatever you’ve got, you kept, but you never further developed.

“If I look at the wind tunnel itself. It’s a great wind tunnel, still today, I think it’s up to date in terms of facility and structure.

“But what has not been developed is the internal methodology of testing. And a good tunnel is not only having the proper flow into a tunnel; it’s the way you measure your data and the aero performance characteristics.

“It’s about measurements, it’s about sensors, it’s about acquisition of data. It’s about the accuracy of the data. It’s about correlation to the race track, and if anything, I think where we have been stuck is really in that methodology.”

Binotto sees a similar lack with Sauber’s simulation facilities, which he thinks are now critical to making a team competitive.

“So what’s the level of correlation of our simulation today? It’s not great enough,” he admitted. “And how can I say it’s not great enough? Because I’ve got certainly a benchmark in mind, and another team which I know very well.

“And why is it the CFD correlation or methodology is so important? Because you cannot today test everything to understand what’s the fastest. You need first to screen it, you need to filter 1000 ideas and just bring the top ten to the wind tunnel.

“Having a proper simulation tool is the most important today. And it is again, where we are very behind.”

On the personnel front, Binotto estimates that Sauber needs to expand numbers by around 350 – something which is not going to happen overnight.

“It is a lot of people. It’s really a lot,” he said. “So we believe that the number of people we need to grow to be comparable to a top team is 350. And that’s not only engineering; it’s manufacturing, financial, HR.

“But how can we hire 350 people from other countries who are F1 specialists? Almost impossible.

“That’s why our strategy will be to invest mainly on very young graduate talents. The reason why is because I am pretty convinced that it is the best investment we can do for our future.

“The Audi journey is a long-term journey, and I’m pretty sure that in a couple of years, the young graduates today will give us our best return on investments.”

(GMM) Valtteri Bottas says that if he could rewind the past three years, he wouldn’t have signed on the dotted line at Sauber.

With the exception of the axed Logan Sargeant, former 10-time grand prix winner Bottas, 35, is the only driver who has raced in 2024 without a single point to his name.

However, with the Finn departing the grid for now after losing his Audi-Sauber seat, he qualified an impressive P9 for the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

“It felt like one of the best laps of my career,” Bottas told Viaplay.

“It’s a bit of a shame that it’s so late this season and the tricks are only now starting to work. A bit ironic maybe,” he added.

“If you look at the whole season, it’s better that we are parting ways now.”

Bottas is fully expected to return to Mercedes to replace Mick Schumacher as his former team’s reserve driver in 2025. “Next week, it is planned that we lock in what we are doing for next year,” he said.

“Let’s finish this race first and then focus on what’s next.”

Bottas has made ‘What’s Next?’ a viral marketing slogan since losing his Sauber seat for 2025 – and it is quite clear that F1 remains in his plans.

“I feel like I haven’t finished with this sport,” he said. “I still have something to give, so I’m going to keep going.”

He freely admits that his three-year Sauber contract ultimately resulted in a career dead-end.

When asked if moving to the Swiss team was perhaps not his wisest ever decision, Bottas told Ilta Sanomat newspaper: “If I could go back three years, I would have gone somewhere else.

“Unfortunately, that’s true. This was a big mistake, but it’s hard to predict these things in advance. And the first year with (Frederic) Vasseur was good. The team spirit was good and the results were quite good.

“The last two seasons after that have been like going downhill the whole time. Of course, that kind of thing affects my image as a driver too. If you can’t show results, the name is kind of forgotten.”

Bottas recently described the 2024 season overall as “sh*t”.

He explains in Abu Dhabi: “When we made the goals for 2022 with Fred and how we would reach them, we had a clear plan. But after he left, all the goals and plans went to the scrap heap.”