34-year-old driver unhappy with 2024 season start, promises back-to-back car upgrades

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Sauber driver Valtteri Bottas has now said that the team are planning on bringing upgrades to the next two Formula 1 races.

The 34-year-old driver has suggested he’s not been happy with how the 2024 season has started.

However, speaking to David Croft at the Adelaide Motorsport Festival, he believes that the gap between the midfield teams is narrowing.

Bottas says Sauber are planning back-to-back upgrades

It’s not been an easy few years for the newly-named Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber who have struggled to make an impact at the front of the grid.

The pairing of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu has been fine but unspectacular and is in danger of being broken up sooner rather than later.

There’s the looming takeover of Audi on the horizon in 2026 when the German manufacturers become the newest works team on the grid.

Bottas is very keen to stick with the team until then but has to earn a new contract at the end of 2024.

This season hasn’t gone brilliantly, with Zhou’s 11^th-place finish in Bahrain their best performance so far.

They’ve struggled with their pit stops and ended up finishing the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in the bottom two positions.

Bottas has now said that Sauber will be bringing upgrades to Australia and Japan to improve their car.

It could be just what they need to bridge the gap between the top five and bottom five teams on the grid.

Bottas admits Stake F1 Team must do better

Asked by Croft what’s gone wrong this season, Bottas said: “Yeah, I mean it’s super close, I think if you look at the results it doesn’t look great at all.

“But, I think we still haven’t had any clean races, we’ve had the pit stop issues with both cars in two races.

“To be honest, in Saudi, I should have been in Q2 without the traffic in qualifying.

“I think we haven’t seen yet where we are, so fingers crossed Melbourne is going to be better.

“We already have some upgrades coming this weekend and also for the next race in Japan, so let’s see.

“Like I said, it’s so close that one improvement can really get you close to the top ten.”

Bottas will hope that Sauber can win the upgrades race this season and propel themselves to the top of the midfield battle.

Audi will want to see progress before they take over and it’ll be fascinating to see how much of an influence they have over the team’s direction before they officially become an F1 manufacturer in 2026.

The Finn was ‘concerned’ by what he saw from the team in Saudi Arabia, which needs to be fixed before they arrive in Melbourne.