Zak Brown fears ‘very good driver’ is now ‘unlikely’ to land 2025 Formula 1 seat

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The 2025 Formula 1 grid is exactly 80 percent complete. Red Bull, RB and Sauber still have four seats to fill between them.

Max Verstappen will stay with the reigning world champions, but Sergio Perez remains vulnerable despite signing a new contract in the summer. The uncertainty around the Mexican means RB can’t confirm either of their drivers.

Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson are both in contention to replace Perez and will battle it out in the remaining six races. Should either of them succeed, F2 title contender Isack Hadjar could get a chance at the junior team.

Meanwhile, Sauber announced the signing of Nico Hulkenberg back in April but, almost six months later, still haven’t chosen his teammate. After missing out on Carlos Sainz, they seemed to step back in the market.

Given that Red Bull will likely shop within their own pool, Mattia Binotto feels he has time to carefully assess his options. The incumbent Valtteri Bottas is hopeful of a contract extension.

The other seven teams have all cemented their partnerships. Of those, McLaren were the only one to enter the year with both drivers – Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri – under contract for 2025 and beyond.

Zak Brown doesn’t expect Gabriel Bortoleto to reach F1 for 2025

Piastri is signed until the end of 2026, while Norris’ deal runs for another two years beyond that. For junior driver Gabriel Bortoleto, the path is blocked.

Bortoleto is currently competing with Hadjar for the F2 championship. With two rounds to go, the Brazilian is 4.5 points ahead.

He’s been linked to the vacancy at Sauber, who will become the Audi works team in 2026. But Audi are reluctant to sign Bortoleto if he remains tied to McLaren.

As such, CEO Zak Brown said in the team principals’ press conference at the US Grand Prix that he’s ‘unlikely’ to make it to F1 next year. He vowed that McLaren wouldn’t ‘hold him back’, which might mean he gets the chance to race in another series.

“He’s a great racing driver,” Brown said. “Right now, our priority is to help them win the Formula 2 championship. So that’s what we’re very much focused on.

“We don’t have an open seat. We’re very happy, obviously, with our two Grand Prix drivers, and we would never want to hold a racing driver back in Grands Prix in his career.

“So we’ll kind of see how things play out, but focused on winning the championship and focused on not holding him back if we can’t provide him with an opportunity in Formula 1, which looks unlikely at this time.”

Could Red Bull make surprise move for Gabriel Bortoleto?

Logically, if Bortoleto triumphs in F2, he deserves an F1 seat. But he certainly wouldn’t be the first champion who doesn’t get the chance.

In fact, the last two champions – Felipe Drugovich and Theo Pourchaire – have both been overlooked. That’s not to say teams aren’t giving young drivers a chance, with Oliver Bearman (Haas), Jack Doohan (Alpine) and Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) forming an exciting rookie contingent for 2025.

Bortoleto can take encouragement from Piastri, who had to wait an additional 12 months before he reached F1. McLaren see Bortoleto as a long-term option, but he can’t bank on a chance arriving in 2027 at the earliest.

This could make him receptive to interest from other teams. One journalist suggested Red Bull could move for Bortoleto and place him at RB, but unless there are any exit routes in his contract, that could be a very difficult move to pull off.