Valtteri Bottas risks losing 2025 Sauber seat as Audi eyes ‘special’ Gabriel Bortoleto alternative

Follow us on Google Discover

Audi holds the keys to one of the last vacant seats for 2025 and has now added a new name to the shortlist of drivers to possibly be Nico Hulkenberg’s teammate at Sauber.

With current Sauber pilots Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu out of contract at the end of the year, Audi wants to establish a driver line-up that will carry into the Hinwil, Switzerland crew becoming its factory entry in 2026. Hulkenberg was early to sign up when he signed in April.

Audi handed Hulkenberg a multi-year contract to switch Haas for Sauber from 2025. But the team’s lack of results in 2024 has proven detrimental to sorting the second seat with Sauber still the only Formula 1 outfit yet to score a single point, with their best finish just 11th place.

Audi adds Felipe Drugovich to its shortlist for a 2025 Sauber F1 seat

Failing to convince Carlos Sainz to join Sauber even cost Andreas Seidl his job as the CEO of Audi’s F1 project. Now, Mattia Binotto is searching high and low for Hulkenberg’s teammate and has added yet another name to a constantly growing shortlist of drivers Audi can target.

That is according to sport.de, which reports that Audi has added Aston Martin reserve driver Felipe Drugovich to its shortlist for Sauber’s remaining 2025 seat. While Bottas and Zhou are in the mix to continue in Hinwil next year, Audi wants to consider each driver on the market.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber from team principal to Audi future

Audi is also considering bringing Mick Schumacher back to F1, agreeing a deal with Williams for Franco Colapinto to join Sauber or tempting F2 title-contender Gabriel Bortoleto to leave McLaren’s academy. Sauber juniors Theo Pourchaire and Zane Maloney are even on the list.

But with no clear favourite emerging to replace Bottas and Zhou at Sauber next year, Audi is weighing Drugovich up as another candidate. The 24-year-old dominated Formula 2 in 2022 to win the title by 101 points to Pourchaire, but has not raced a single-seater full-time since.

Felipe Drugovich rejected a chance to join Sauber for the 2024 season

Drugovich spent 2023 in the Aston Martin garage after striking a deal to become a reserve driver straight after sealing his F2 title. He has also tested in Formula E for Maserati and in Formula 1 for Aston Martin. But his return to racing came in the European Le Mans Series.

The Brazilian joined Vector Sport for the 2024 European Le Mans campaign and also drove for Whelen Cadillac Racing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Now, Audi is considering Drugovich, who MP Motorsport chief Paolo Angilella called ‘special’ in 2022, for a seat in F1 at Sauber.

Him moving to Hinwil would mark a U-turn from one year ago when Drugovich rejected his chance to join Sauber as Bottas’ teammate. The Parana native snubbed the chance to join Formula 1 as Drugovich loathed being tagged as a pay driver, and did not have the budget.

Before the Grove natives opted to promote Colapinto for the remainder of the 2024 season, Drugovich was also an option to replace Logan Sargeant at Williams. The budget they would have gained from having the Brazilian would have countered the costs of Sargeant’s crashes.