Valtteri Bottas said Audi’s decision to sign Nico Hulkenberg came as somewhat of a surprise.
Audi will take over the Sauber team, which Bottas currently drives for, in 2026. It announced last week Hulkenberg will join the team next year.“The timing is quite early and a little bit surprising,” said Bottas. “But the driver market is starting to move, obviously.
“It also kind of makes sense, he’s German and Audi’s made it pretty clear that they want a German driver. So it’s all good, let’s see what happens next.”
The news means either Bottas or his current team mate Zhou Guanyu – or both – will have to find another seat for next year. Bottas said he’s been “speaking to multiple teams, some talks have advanced more than the others, so we’ll see.”
Hulkenebrg admitted “it’s quite unusual for me that I know so early in the season where my future will be.” He told Sky he was pleased to “take that subject away so we can focus on the remainder of the season with Haas.”
“I obviously want to finish as successfully as possible,” he added. “There’s no presents to my future team, I’m still going to try and kick their butts.”
Sauber originally approached Hulkenberg during last season, he revealed. “There was an appetite and interest already last year and conversations, but it didn’t happen. And then this year again, obviously quite early in the season still, there was an appetite from them.
“But there was also appetite here from Haas, I was in parallel also talking with Ayao [Komatsu, team principal] and telling him that I think the future decision will happen sooner this year.
“So I gave them, not the opportunity, but I was talking here too because Haas is the team that gave me the opportunity to come back, last year. So I’m still very grateful for that but at the end obviously decided to move to Sauber.”
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KentHarwood
2nd May 2024, 21:05
This got me thinking about teams in the past choosing drivers with nationality as a specific criterion. I guess there’ve been a couple of Japanese drivers because of a Honda connection. Were Heidfeld and Rosberg originally chosen because they’re German? Funny enough, I can’t think of Ferrari (the most nationalistic-seeming of all teams) going out of their way for an Italian. Hard to tell with the British. Their media goes on about having ‘all-British’ lineups, but never sure if that was the intent of the team…. Alpine seem pretty happy about having two French drivers, but again… Thoughts? :)
anon
2nd May 2024, 21:16
KentHarwood, in the case of Ferrari, people would probably point to Arturo Merzario, Michele Alboreto and Jarno Trulli as potential examples.
someone or something
2nd May 2024, 21:58
Pretty sure you meant Fisichella (and Badoer), because I can’t remember Trulli ever getting behind the wheel of a Ferrari.
However, KentHarwood’s point still stands: If one were to look only at the nationalities of Ferrari’s drivers, it wouldn’t become apparent that Ferrari are Italian.
Erzen (@xenn1)
2nd May 2024, 21:52
Ferrari is way too stubborn in having Italians in the engineering team by the looks of it, so i guess you could say they spend most of their nationalism there hahah
I find it rather amusing: back in 2019 Hülkenberg lost his seat at a works team because they wanted a french driver, and now he’s going to his next works team because they wanted a German driver.
MichaelN
3rd May 2024, 10:33
It’s not really a policy, but rather the expected outcome of being, well, in Italy. But Ferrari has had plenty of leadership figures over the years that have been Spanish, French, English, Greek, etc.
Still, being in Italy puts certain limits on who they can hire as not everyone wants to live there. And it’s also debatable how much it really matters. A lot of the work at the factory obviously requires a certain education and proficiency, but it’s not creative as such. There’s no big upside to trying to fill the rank and file with a whole bunch of people from across the world.
Same with the German teams, or the English teams, or Honda, etc. Most of the people working there will be locals.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
2nd May 2024, 23:00
Anything to do with BMW, definitely. Years and years of Ralf Schumacher, then Heidfeld. Here comes Audi, and here we go again…
I still wonder what on earth Ron Dennis was thinking bringing Nigel Mansell to McLaren in 1995. He already had a British driver, must have been Marlboro demanding “a World Champion” or something.
Terrion (@terrion)
3rd May 2024, 8:32
Yeah, it was quite visible in Japanese teams:
2006 Super Aguri wanted whole-japanese team with Sato and Ide, later Yamamoto
2008-9 Nakajima was racing for Williams with Toyota engines
2009 Kobayashi raced the last 2 races for Toyota and was bound to drive for them the next year, had Toyota not withdrawn from F1
And now obviously Tsunoda counts as well
Señor Sjon
3rd May 2024, 9:03
The French are very good at this. Prost even went so far as to get as much French sponsors as he could to go with a French driver.
Renault 1977-1985
Prost 1997-2001
Alpine since 2020
Always 1-2 Frenchmen
AlanD
3rd May 2024, 16:02
Kent, I think when Alesi drove for them, Ferrari made a big deal of him being Sicilian, but I don’t think they hired him because of that, just realise dit was a marketing opportunity. When Mercedes came back into the sport, I remember reading stuff that they specifically wanted German drivers (Rosberg and Schuey) to raise their profile in Germany, but again, it is hard to know if any of that was true.
I think when you hear talk of “an all-British line-up”, that is press hype rather than a recruitment policy, and I expect it would happen in any country. The British fans themselves are not that jingoistic. Because so many teams were historically based around the Midlands and southern UK, (because of easy access to tracks in days when testing was key), it is hard to think of them by nationality. We see teams like Red Bull, supposedly Austrian but actually in Milton Keynes, Mercedes, German but based at Brackley, Northants, Alpine, French but based at Enstone in Oxfordshire. So when you think about it, the idea that we play a national anthem for the team is rather meaningless, and just another example of the pomposity of people who organise these things.
With English being the de facto language in F1, most of the drivers speak pretty good English, and some impressively good, and a lot of drivers have lived here when they were racing in lower formulas, e.g. Alonso used to live in Oxford. This fluency and familiarity means, I feel, that when people look at Alonso, they don’t see him first as a Spaniard, that is just a bitof interesting background info. Of course, there are exceptions, but among motor-sport fans, nationality is generally not that big an issue.
The only oddity I can think of among current drivers is Albon. He is always referred to as Thai but he holds dual British Thai nationality, grew up in Britain, schooled in Britain, but chose to race under the Thai flag. But that is because F1 has some strange need to pigeon-hole people into nationalities. The colours on his flag make no difference to how he drives, so why is it necessary to make an issue of his nationality.
DonSmee (@david-beau)
3rd May 2024, 3:44
Ha. Bottas. Dressing up like a 1980’s comedic relief character all for nuffin!
Tristan
3rd May 2024, 5:32
If the team and the driver has the same national anthem, does it play twice on the podium? (I’m not sure how I don’t know this, is it a common occurrence in the past?)
Red Andy (@red-andy)
3rd May 2024, 6:19
No, only once. Most recent I can recall would be Ocon in Hungary 2021.
Tristan
3rd May 2024, 7:03
What a rip-off.
notagrumpyfan
3rd May 2024, 15:03
I understand they play it concurrently ;)
Jere (@jerejj)
3rd May 2024, 10:06
Rather Bottas or both than either or both, although I think even Zhou is merely a backup option for stop-gap purposes, depending on Sainz, Ocon, Gasly, etc.
However, Audi wanting a driver of a certain nationality was indeed pretty clear for a while, & Hulkenberg is the only current full-time driver + he has vast experience in F1, which is an added bonus.
Jimmy W
3rd May 2024, 14:39
Not forgetting he’s rather ouick
notagrumpyfan
3rd May 2024, 15:02
I understand they play it concurrently ;)
Nick T.
3rd May 2024, 15:45
Them firing and replacing Bottas’ engineer without even telling him is an even bigger and IMO, unproductive statement. Bottas is driving well right now, but him seemingly checking out for all of 2023 hasn’t helped his cause. I highly disagree with the idea that him growing his hair how he wants it shows a lack of commitment though. Maybe a lack of understanding how corporate boards and the media might interpret it though.
An Sionnach
3rd May 2024, 17:15
Presumably, they’ll want Sainz in the other seat if they can get him. Who will want Bottas? Williams and Haas? He’s a fast qualifier on his day, so might be a suitable Hulkenberg replacement, although Magnussen might have to go too if Bearman is to come in for Hulkenberg. Alpine may have at least one seat free. I’m guessing he won’t want to go back to Mercedes to be George’s wing man. Perhaps Williams is the sanest of the options. Bottas seems to appreciate not having his head wrecked.
Nick T.
3rd May 2024, 17:24
Replacing Magnussen or Sargeant seem to be the only realistic possibilities. Bottas would be a major improvement on one and a solid improvement on another. But they need to keep him on a one-year contract to keep him from easing off the throttle. I wouldn’t mind seeing drives like Maloney, Aaron or Hauger given a chance either though.
An Sionnach
3rd May 2024, 18:39
Maybe Mercedes knew how to get the best out of Bottas, then?
When Alonso and Hamilton retire… and The Max goes elsewhere, will any of the others be able to step up and be considered a great driver? New talent is definitely needed. If any race fans out there have had babies recently, can you raise them to race like Max, please? Don’t go easy on them, like Jos did! They need to be so good that they make Max glad he retired before they could race him.
Janith
4th May 2024, 7:39
Theory – Audi has major aspirations for their F1 future
Reality – Their driver line-up intention is to reunite Hulkenberg with one of his old teammates(Sainz, Perez). LMAO.
At least an exciting rookie like BMW did with Kubica would have been far more interesting.
Janith
4th May 2024, 7:41
People are sleeping on it. But Zhou could go to Alpine if Ocon or Gasly leaves.