Sauber has confirmed both its current drivers will leave the team at the end of the year as it has opted for an all-new line-up for 2025.
The team has named Formula 2 points leader Gabriel Bortoleto will join the team alongside Nico Hulkenberg, whose hiring from Haas was announced in April.Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu will therefore leave the team. Bottas joined Sauber from Mercedes in 2022, the same year Zhou made his F1 debut. Neither has scored a point in their third season together as Sauber has struggled with its uncompetitive C44 chassis.
“After open and constructive discussions with Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, we mutually concluded that conditions to continue together could not be met so we agreed that it is time to part ways,” the team said in a statement. “We would like to thank both for the contribution they have made to the team in the last three years. They have been the embodiment of professionalism, using their experience and enthusiasm to support our growth.”
Before joining the Formula 2 grid this season, Bortoleto also claimed the Formula 3 title last year before stepping up to F2 with the Invicta team. Over his first 24 starts in F2, Bortoleto has taken two race victories in the feature races at the Red Bull Ring and at Monza, where he rose from 22nd and last on the grid to win with the help of a well-timed Safety Car. He also scored podiums in Imola, Monaco and Spa-Francorchamps – all second places.
Bortoleto will become the first Brazilian driver to race in the world championship full-time since Felipe Massa in 2017. He said Sauber, which will become Audi’s works F1 team in 2026, is “one of the most exciting projects in motorsport, if not in all of sports.”
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“I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity given to me by the team and for the chance to work alongside an experienced driver like Nico,” he said.
The news leaves Bottas, who made his F1 debut with Williams in 2013, without a seat for next year. “A situation like this is never easy for anyone,” he said. “But after all the good and in-depth discussions we had in the past weeks, we realised that the conditions to grow this project together were not met.”
Bottas won 10 grands prix in his five seasons at Mercedes, his last coming at Istanbul in 2021. He recently indicated he would consider returning to his former team as a reserve driver.
Zhou became the first Chinese driver to race in F1 two years ago. He said he is “fully committed to finishing the season in style.”
“I am grateful to the team for giving me a chance in Formula 1,” he said. “This is not an easy sport for rookies, but the team has allowed me to grow so much over these three years.”
China’s round of the world championship returned to the calendar this year, giving Zhou his first chance to race in F1 at home. “China, earlier this season, was without doubt a highlight,” he said, “but so many moments, both in public and behind the scenes, are what I am going to remember from the last three years.”
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“I’ll now focus on the next step in my career,” he added. “I still have plenty of fight left in me and I am keen to continue progressing.”
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Jay
6th November 2024, 8:46
I was hoping Valteri would stay, I think he’s still got some race in him. But the way the rookies have been going it’s not surprising. They’ve been doing just as well as some of the veterans and they’re way cheaper for the teams. It’d be cool to see him do the Dakar!
notagrumpyfan
6th November 2024, 8:48
I’m more excited about Bortoleto than Kimi and Bearman joining F1.
Unfortunately not the best team to show who is the best addition, but luckily Hulkenberg is a known and consistent force to be compared with over a full season.
I wouldn’t mind Colapinto either; overall a very strong showing so far this season.
Craig
6th November 2024, 13:21
I won’t deny I expected next to nothing from Colapinto besides bringing the car home, but he’s done extremely well and deserves his praise.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
6th November 2024, 18:10
GB is probably better than Colapinto. Hes (GB) always seemed very fast in F2, the big question is whether or not IH will be able to get a chance.
Said it before, say it again, the sprint races should be for rookies, and the teams should field even as many as 4 different drivers through out the whole season, run sprints every round, let the F1 guys do their normal thing, Liberty to pay teams to offset risk of equipment failure + parts wear + a few more mechanics to get everything sorted. F2 is great as it is, but the sprint has so much more opportunity for adding spice to F1, and its kind of a side show anyways, that really shouldn’t be adding to the points score over the season.
SteveP
6th November 2024, 19:08
I think I’ve worn that particular idea down to nothing with all my repeats.
F1statsfan (@f1statsfan)
6th November 2024, 9:06
I didn’t realize it but Bottas is just over 8 years older than Max but only started in F1 2 years earlier.
Guess it is changing of times where being a F1 rookie at the age of 23 used to be normal in previous century but in this century it is now considered old.
From all the 2024 F1 drivers Bottas was the oldest rookie with 8,602 days (=23years & 6 months)
The average of the 23 drivers is 7,683 (=21 years)
6 were under 20 years, 3 were 20 years, 7 were 21 years, 6 were 22 years and 1 was 23 years
Alonso now the oldest driver is the 5th youngest rookie with Lewis the 2nd oldest driver being the 5th oldest rookie. They are the only 2 drivers that started before 2010 while 7 drivers only started this decade.
Deep Sky (@deepsky)
6th November 2024, 11:09
Great stats. It’s also amazing the two oldest drivers from the 2000 era have a sizeable 3.5 year gap between them. Alonso is setting a longevity benchmark. He may not have had great cars of late but no doubt is still in demand for his skills.
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
6th November 2024, 9:17
Perez, Hulkenberg, Stroll, Tsunoda, Ocon, Gasly… next please. The problem is the team principals who are reluctant to give young drivers a chance and instead rely on the “usato sicuro”. The exceptions are Wolff and Horner/Marko. Ferrari changed mentality thanks to Marchionne. Bearman, Lawson and Colapinto have shown they’re ready for F1. Just hope that this will put more pressure on the teams to give young drivers a chance.
David (@nvherman)
6th November 2024, 11:46
@tifoso1989 McLaren have been known to give rookies their chance as well: the most obvious example I can think of off the top of my head is Hamilton.
Plus there’s:
Kevin Magnussen in 2014, when he was 21
Lando Norris in 2019, when he was 19
Oscar Piastri in 2023, when he was 21
JA
6th November 2024, 12:11
Vandoorne 2017
David (@nvherman)
7th November 2024, 10:49
@JA Good point, can’t believe I forgot about him
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
6th November 2024, 12:30
@nvherman
Indeed.
HAL
7th November 2024, 16:56
It’s easy to critize Ocon and Gasly on the dawn of a very difficult season what that dog of a car. But I don’t think they deserve to be in that list. Or if so you have to put half of the grid along…
GeeMac (@geemac)
6th November 2024, 9:19
No changes in 2024, all the changes in 2025. You have to love F1…
notagrumpyfan
6th November 2024, 10:15
That came back to bite them with the in season change of 10% of the seats (so far).
MichaelN
6th November 2024, 9:24
Good news. Zhou is a nice guy and his journey to F1 is a great story, and worthy of respect for his tenacity, but the performance has plateaud and arguably gotten worse. Bottas has done the seemingly obligatory post-topteam stint, but there was very little reason to keep him.
Great to see some many new faces on the 2025 grid. Hopefully one of them is the real deal, because Verstappen has no equal among the likes of Leclerc, Russell and Norris. It all feels a bit early 2000s in that sense.
Craig
6th November 2024, 12:49
Zhou’s done much better then I feared he would, but on the whole not enough to warrant a seat (even if the Sauber’s been terrible). Pleased he got his chance though.
I wouldn’t underestimate Leclerc, Russell and Norris so as Verstappen has enjoyed a far superior car over the last few years up until about Austria when he started falling back into his desperate defensive habits, something he’s not guaranteed to enjoy any longer.
MichaelN
6th November 2024, 21:47
Zhou was impressive in his first year. I don’t think anyone – even he – imagined he could stay that close to Bottas, who despite everything one might quibble with, is a multiple race winner and was on his best days (and tracks) a genuine match for Hamilton. But Zhou doesn’t seem to have gotten any better on pretty much any front, and this year his #1 priority seems to be to not take any risks. Which is laudable in some sense for a team whose apparent lack of funding has driven them into the arms of some pretty disreputable sponsors. But in the slowest car it’s usually better to score once or twice and also retire a few times than to never score at all.
I hope you’re right about Verstappen’s late 1990s colleagues, but I’m just not seeing it. They might win in a way Häkkinen won, or Villeneuve, or Button. But I’m afraid that’s it.
Terrion (@terrion)
6th November 2024, 9:30
So many newbies on the grid for next year and none of them is Dennis Hauger. Copium.
Craig
6th November 2024, 12:51
Or Drugovich or Pourchaire. Quite a few fast drivers have been extremely unfortunate that they’ve shown F1 worthy quality when there’s no seats available and been forced onto the side-lines/elsewhere
anon
6th November 2024, 13:55
Probably because Hauger hasn’t had great results in Formula 2 – he’s finished in 10th in 2022, 8th in 2023 and currently sits 9th this year. He finished behind his team mate in 2022, and was being beaten this season by his team mate too – in fact, he is still behind Colapinto at the moment, despite Colapinto missing the last two races after being promoted to Williams.
Joe Seph
6th November 2024, 9:44
Bottas to V8 supercars! or at least Bathurst 1000
Not enough rookies… Drugovich for Strullovich 2025
asz
6th November 2024, 13:13
That’s droll (or drogue?)
Lee That's Me (@leethatsme)
6th November 2024, 10:25
I’m sad to see Bottas go, I still think he’d be a great replacement for Perez. I can see how Hulk+Bortoleto is a much more exciting prospect than Hulk+Bottas though. I’d put Bottas above Hulk but the German Audi connection counts.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
6th November 2024, 17:43
I think so too, and I don’t like them saying the same things about drivers in their goodbye, there’s been a huge difference in performance between the 2.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
6th November 2024, 17:44
I just don’t see how perez is staying in f1, especially at a top team, when even at his best in 2021 he was no better than bottas!
SteveP
6th November 2024, 19:16
You have to have a driver that isn’t going to challenge Max – the list of noisy people who would complain starts with Jos
MichaelN
6th November 2024, 21:52
Champion’s League coaches don’t stand around with the dads of their players, there’s no reason someone in Horner’s position should care one bit about Jos Verstappen.
Like most things that don’t make sense, it’s probably about money. Pérez is ‘worth it’, even if his increasingly pitiful struggles makes the team look silly.
anon
7th November 2024, 7:44
Given Jos has a dual role as part of Max’s management team, he can exert influence on the team through the threat of taking Max elsewhere and can justify being present within the team. As a result, we have had Marko explicitly state that the risk of conflict within the team was a reason for rejecting drivers such as Sainz.
Sergey Martyn
6th November 2024, 10:59
Hit the road folks and don’t you come back
No more, no more, no more, no more
Hit the road folks and don’t you come back no more
What you say?
Oh Sauber Sauber, don’t treat me so mean
You’re the meanest team I’ve ever seen
I guess if you said so
I’ll have to pack my things and go (that’s right)!
Hotbottoms (@hotbottoms)
6th November 2024, 11:30
It is understandable that Sauber didn’t want to have two drivers nearing the end of their careers, so really, the driver replacing Bottas isn’t Bortoleto, but Hulkenberg.
I also understand that many fans aren’t particularly fond of Bottas, as he didn’t truly manage to challenge Hamilton during Mercedes’ years of domination.
However, I don’t quite understand how signing pay drivers is often (in my opinion, rightfully) criticized, yet fans seem to be more accepting when drivers are signed because of their nationality. In my view, it is quite evident that Audi/Sauber signed Hulkenberg because of his nationality.
Bottas’ performances have been at least as good as Hulkenberg’s, and they are about the same age. However, keeping Bottas instead of Hulkenberg would have given Sauber the advantage of a clearer benchmark for tracking the car’s improvement (or lack of improvement). Now, they will have two new drivers next season, which is probably not an ideal situation, especially given that their car is currently the worst on the grid.
Jere (@jerejj)
6th November 2024, 12:05
Let’s just put the matter this way: Hulkenberg & Bortoleto will equally simultaneously replace Bottas & Zhou, as the matter isn’t clear-cut like with Haas that Bearman is a direct successor to Hulkenberg & Ocon to Magnussen, given the departure/announcement timings.
However, I can also understandable Audi wanting to have an experienced/rookie combo rather than two experienced ones, even though vast F1 racing experience is never a bad thing at all.
Roy Beedrill
7th November 2024, 0:03
Eerm… I’d like to see what made you come to that conclusion.
Given you’ve said this yourself, I can’t help but think you have some finnish roots then.
Personally I’m pretty sure if Valtteri still was at Mercedes with their current car, he would be somewhere around Perez, struggling to get out of Q1 and get in the points on Sundays.
Jere (@jerejj)
6th November 2024, 12:03
Finally. A little over three months since Sainz’s Williams move announcement & ultimately fully expected for a few days.
I’m looking forward to how he fares in F1 & next season will have quite a few rookies, so a nice mixture, & possibly still one more becoming a full-time driver, depending on the Red Bull situation, i.e., Isack Hadjar.
Consequently, next season will be the first since 1988 not to feature a single Finnish driver.
Simon
6th November 2024, 22:30
Happy now?
Jere (@jerejj)
7th November 2024, 8:54
Yes because this lengthy delay had started to become more & more annoying over time due to the constant speculations about drivers who were never going to receive a drive anyway such as Colapinto.
Adam (@rocketpanda)
6th November 2024, 12:16
To be honest I’m sad to see Bottas go, I still think he’s considerably better than a large amount of the grid and certainly still had more to offer.
Mayrton
7th November 2024, 7:44
Yes, he regularly had the better of Hamilton, so Bottas must be right up there between the all time greats.
Edvaldo
6th November 2024, 13:15
Bottas was dealt a very bad hand with that car this year, but it wouldn’t make any sense to keep him while bringing Hulk with so many young prospects available.
As for Zhou, it’s hard to say anything about a driver who’s been there for 3 seasons and whose biggest moment was that crash in Silverstone 2022.
Robert Williams (@weiliwen)
6th November 2024, 15:57
I’m very sad to see Bottas, my favorite driver and a guy who seemingly has discovered a sense of humor, leave F1. I would hate to see him reduced to commentator status, and I hope he doesn’t descend to sedan racing or prototype racing. Or, God forbid, Indycar racing.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
6th November 2024, 19:50
He can always have a promising career as a calendar model.
juan fanger (@juan-fanger)
6th November 2024, 19:59
Australia will happily adopt Bottas fulltime, thanks.
Unfortunately there is really only the Supercars as a top tier car racing, but he can keep that mullet under a cycling helmet at events all around the country if that’s what he enjoys doing.
Jere (@jerejj)
7th November 2024, 8:55
@weiliwen He said on the Baku weekend that IndyCar is his Plan B, although whether that series is still an option for next year at this point is another matter.
Ronny
6th November 2024, 18:03
Finally he is gone.. Boring Bottas made F1 Boring for many seasons.
And Zhou is a pay driver who bought the seat out from under Nyck de Vries and then Pourchaire. Both way more talented drivers then Zhou is.
SteveP
6th November 2024, 19:23
“than Zhou is” – the sentiment is fine, but I’m pretty sure Zhou isn’t a moment in time. ;)
anon
6th November 2024, 20:52
Ronny, the same de Vries who was considered completely underwhelming during his time at Alpha Tauri and was fired after half a season for underperforming?
It’s also rather hard to see how you can claim that Zhou “bought the seat out from under Nyck de Vries” when there’s no real overlap in their careers either – Zhou, being four years younger than de Vries, rose up through the junior ranks behind de Vries, and both drivers were also part of entirely different driver academies during their junior career (Mercedes for de Vries and Ferrari/Alpine for Zhou). de Vries was therefore never in contention for a seat at Sauber, where Zhou ended up.
As for Pourchaire, isn’t part of the problem the fact that people felt he underperformed relative to expectations in the 2023 Formula 2 championship, particularly given his experience in that championship? There was an expectation that he should have won the 2023 title relatively easily, but there was a feeling that he didn’t have great form for a significant portion of the 2023 season and those performances dented his reputation somewhat.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
6th November 2024, 19:45
I seriously hope this doesn’t give him more time to make calendars.
Also, I hope he sends one every day to Donald with his willie autographed!
unexpected_move
6th November 2024, 21:07
Pretty soon there will be a very important announcement which involves a rookie driver moving up to a top team for next season. Remember, you heard it from me first. Everybody will be surprised because it’s an unexpected move. Sorry but can’t say anymore.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
6th November 2024, 23:03
Piastri? Bearman?
anon
7th November 2024, 2:16
None of the above. Sorry, can’t disclose but no one even conceived this scenario.
Mayrton
7th November 2024, 7:47
It is already out. It is Colapinto to replace a retiring Verstappen who is going to leave this rigged formula.
anon
7th November 2024, 7:58
Verstappen will still be with Red Bull in 2025
Riker (@corsair)
7th November 2024, 5:42
Sauber at least providing Bottas and Zhou a proper farewell.
Unlike RBR & RB.
MacLeod (@macleod)
7th November 2024, 7:48
Another F2 driver enters F1 nothing bad about Colapinto but next season F2 champion there will be no room as now 3 F2 drivers are in F1. All those reserve drivers are have to wait for a long time.