Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu exits announced as Gabriel Bortoleto joins Sauber for the 2025 F1 season
Sauber has officially announced its 2025 F1 driver lineup, as both Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu will be leaving the team and young Brazilian Gabriel Bortoleto joins Nico Hulkenberg. The driver lineup for the Swiss-based team has been a bone of contention for a while now, as there has been a lack of clarity when it came to the direction that the team was going to take.
When it came to drivers, the team has been talking to quite a few and a lot of them have been linked with this project. Earlier it was Carlos Sainz whose father has associations with Audi itself. Then it was drivers like Esteban Ocon who opted not to go to the team and recently it was the Argentinian Franco Colapinto.
While Hulkenberg was one name that was signed on instantly by the team early in the season, the difficulty when it comes to filling the second seat has been evident for a while. Bortoleto will be the second driver. The highly-rated Brazilian is leading the F2 championship in his rookie season after winning the F3 title in his rookie year.
This announcement also means Valtteri Bottas would no longer be a part of the Swiss team. He has been a part of the squad for three years now, and the future does appear murky for the Finnish driver at the moment. In the media debrief, talking about his departure from the team and being replaced by Gabriel Bortoleto, Bottas said:
“A situation like this is never easy for anyone. 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. These past years with the team have been an incredible journey, full of growth, challenges, and unforgettable moments.”
“I’m grateful for the joint experiences as well as the trust and support I’ve felt every step of the way. Though it’s time to move on, I’ll always carry a piece of this team with me, and I look forward to seeing what the future holds for us both.”
The team that would be rebranded as Audi is in the doldrums right now, as since the announcement was made that the German giant was going to take over, it has taken quite a few steps backward.
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