Rhonan Colquhoun 11:30pm 5th August 2024
AFTER months of stagnation in the chaotic driver market, the recent driver confirmation announcements now put this former Mercedes driver future at risk.
Current Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber Driver Valtteri Bottas is now being re-evaluated by the soon-to-become Audi F1 Team to continue into 2025.
EXPERIENCED: Bottas's time in F1 is now over a decade long and has racked up 236 races
The Finnish driver was a contender to race at the likes of Haas and Williams but these have since been taken by Esteban Ocon and Carlos Sainz Jr.
Bottas, who drove for Mercedes between 2017 and 2021, partnered Lewis Hamilton and achieved 10 Grand Prix victories before moving to the Sauber team under the guise of Alfa Romeo for 2022.
Bottas currently lies 21st and last in the Championship with zero points but has been unable to show much of his talent as the team have struggled with numerous issues - on-track and off-track - for the majority of this season.
As the sport breaks for the Summer, Bottas has a highest finish of 13th place - twice achieved at back-to-back events in Monaco and Canada. The Finn has an average starting place of 14.89 but an average finishing position of 15.86.
Along with Stake team-mate Zhou Guanyu, both drivers seemed unlikely to stay on for next season and this was confirmed earlier in the year with the team signing Nico Hulkenberg from Haas as Audi's first driver for 2025.
Bottas was reportedly in contention to replace Esteban Ocon at Alpine for 2025 but the French outfit's Reserve Driver, Jack Doohan, now looks set to partner Pierre Gasly instead.
Since the most recent driver confirmation of Carlos Sainz moving to Williams, Bottas's chances of being retaining by the team have increased as the Spaniard elected to turn down Audi's lucrative offer.
Bottas still seems to be the top pick out of a limited pool of drivers which includes Haas's Kevin Magnussen, Zhou and Sauber protégé Theo Pourchaire. However, there's one driver who's name is kept being mentioned who could be Bottas's biggest threat.
Brazilian F2 Rookie Gabriel Bortoleto currently lies second in the Championship with 129 points in his debut year. The 19 year-old is part of the McLaren Driver Development Programme and has already picked-up his first F2 win with victory in the Feature Race at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.
The person tasked with deciding who Hulkenberg's 2025 team-mate should be is down to former Ferrari Team Principal and newly confirmed Audi boss Mattia Binotto. Recent sources have suggested that Binotto has cited Bortoleto's impressive rookie campaign in the feeder series as enough to make him a contender for the seat.
Sources suggest that if Bottas is still the right candidate for the team - a deal will be completed before the end of the Summer Break. If there is no news and no announcement, it would suggest that the team is holding off and the longer they wait, it seems unlikely that Bottas will stay on the grid next season.
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