Sauber drops Bottas and Guanyu, hires Bartoleto for 2025

Sauber has parted ways with Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, leaving both drivers without an F1 drive in 2025.

For Bottas it ends an unbroken 13-year stint in the sport, during which he won 10 grands prix while driving for Mercedes between 2017 and 2021. His career total of 67 podiums puts him 10th on the all-time list.

Meanwhile Zhou Guanyu - F1’s first Chinese driver - will depart three years after making his debut with the team (when it was known as Alfa Romeo). Neither he nor Bottas has scored a point so far in 2024.

Having signed Nico Hulkenberg all the way back in April, there was only one seat going anyway and that’s been handed to Gabriel Bartoleto, the current F2 championship leader.

The 20-year-old Brazilian won the F3 title last year and was signed up to McLaren’s young driver programme, but with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri on long-term deals, the team has agreed to release him.

That means there will be three new rookies on the grid next year - Bartoleto, Jack Doohan and Kimi Antonelli - as well as Oliver Bearman and (in all likelihood) Liam Lawson with only a handful of starts between them.

Red Bull has also reportedly shown an interest in Williams’ Franco Colapinto, who’s been a revelation since replacing Logan Sargeant a few races back.

“This is one of the most exciting projects in motorsport, if not in all sports,” said Bartoleto. “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.

“I am confident that together, we will write our own success story.”

And having thanked Valtteri and Zhou in separate statements, team boss Mattia Binotto added: “Gabriel has already demonstrated in the junior categories that he has what it takes to be a winning driver. We are very pleased that he will become a team member of Sauber and Audi.

“Nico and Gabriel represent the ideal combination of experience and youth, positioning us strongly for the future.”

Sauber will morph into the Audi works team in 2026, however rumour has it the German brand has got cold feet about the project after big changes at boardroom level.

Last week VW announced plans to shut three of its factories and lay off tens of thousands of staff; hardly the ideal backdrop to an expensive F1 project…