Valtteri Bottas said something quietly devastating about Sauber after the Dutch Grand Prix

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Sauber endured a truly wretched weekend at the Dutch Grand Prix. Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu were slowest in both qualifying and the race.

Bottas and Zhou existed Q1 in 18th and 19th place respectively, only avoiding 20th because Williams’ Logan Sargeant was ruled out with damage. They gained a couple of extra spots after the session as Alex Albon was disqualified and Kevin Magnussen took a pit lane start after changing components.

But they fell back to the foot of the field on Sunday. Race-winner Lando Norris lapped everyone up to Pierre Gasly in ninth, but Bottas and Zhou suffered the ignominy of finishing two laps down.

The Swiss outfit remain the only team who have yet to score a point in 2024. At this stage, they seem as far away from the top 10 as ever.

Zhou finished 11th in the season opener in Bahrain but the team haven’t managed better than 13th since. And they haven’t come home higher than P15 since Canada.

Many Sauber employees will be counting the days until Audi take over. Giedo van der Garde expects Audi to build a ‘cannon of an engine’ as they aim to carry their success in other disciplines into F1.

Valtteri Bottas says he couldn’t make his Sauber work on any tyre compound at Dutch Grand Prix

Speaking after Sunday’s race, Bottas admitted that Sauber had endured their worst weekend of the year. Finishing bottom of the standings would afford them the most wind tunnel time, but the cost can’t be ignored.

The events of the season are bound to be sapping the morale in their ranks. And it’s also making the team less attractive to potential new recruits, whether that’s a driver to partner Nico Hulkenberg or an engineer to improve their chassis.

Motorsport-Total note that Bottas made one particularly ‘devastating’ point. The Finn tried all three dry compounds, but didn’t feel comfortable on any of them.

He is at least optimistic that they’ll improve in the coming races. But critics would say it’s hard to get any worse than they were in Zandvoort.

“I didn’t expect the performance to be so bad,” Bottas said. “We tried all the compounds today, so it’s not the tyres’ fault, it’s the car’s. It just doesn’t work on this track.”

“We haven’t been this weak in any race this year, and it’s not like we’ve taken a step backwards. So I think this track really highlights the car’s weaknesses.”

Bottas has sent ‘clearest signal possible’ about where he’ll be racing in 2025

After a weekend like this, Bottas may ideally want to look optimistically to the future at another team. But he’s out of alternatives.

Williams have signed Carlos Sainz to partner Alex Albon and Alpine have confirmed that Jack Doohan will be Pierre Gasly’s teammate. Haas, the only other realistic option, have also finalised their line-up.

Bottas has held talks with Mattia Binotto as he prioritises staying in F1. The team may feel they aren’t in a position to take a risk after a woeful season.

By posing next to an Audi R8 marked with the number 77, Bottas sent the ‘clearest signal possible’ about his plans for next year, according to Marc Priestley. They may decide to offer him a one-year extension before evaluating the situation again in 12 months.