Bottas: “Renewal? I'm stirring things up, but I'm looking around”

by VALERIO BARRETTA

Bottas, confirmation is at risk

Time passes for everyone. Not even the champions are eternal, let alone those who have never been a champion but only a good supporting character. In this sense the Valtteri years Bottas (35 in August) are a factor that has a major impact on the negotiations between the Finn and Sauber.

It cannot be said that in Hinwil they are enthusiastic about the Bottas-Zhou two-year period, and the start of 2024 was not born under a lucky star either. At Sauber, at least, there is a lot of freedom from a contractual point of view. Bottas and Zhou's contracts expire at the end of the season: team representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi warned them at the beginning of the season, confirming that Carlos Sainz is a primary objective for the near future. However, Bottas is calm on the renewal front.

Bottas' words

“I'm slowly stirring things up“, this is the comment of the former Mercedes. “I think we still need a few more races this season, I hope that with a good number of results the waters can move even more. In this market we must always try to be one step ahead. This is what my management is working on: I focus on driving, and I have people behind me trying to read the market and work on different options if necessary“.

But is Sainz really going to Sauber?

The dream of Alunni Bravi is called Sainz. The Ferrari driver, however, is demonstrating on the track that he has ambitions higher than the prospects offered to him by Sauber, even taking Audi's entry into consideration in 2026. Even leaving aside a suffering 2025, there is no certainty that he will Spaniard can immediately be competitive for the victory at the wheel of Audi. He wouldn't even have it with Red Bull (if Max Verstappen left), Mercedes or Aston Martin, but it certainly wouldn't be a total leap in the dark. That's why #55 is taking as much time as possible to make a career-defining choice.