Our verdict on Sauber dropping Bottas for Bortoleto for F1 2025

Another piece of the 2025 Formula 1 grid has fallen into place with Gabriel Bortoleto replacing Valtteri Bottas at Sauber.

Sauber is swapping Bottas and Zhou Guanyu for Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg, but has it made the right call? Does Bottas deserve better and what kind of F1 future might Bortoleto have?

Our team give their thoughts below:

Bottas biggest victim of chaotic silly season

Glenn Freeman

If Bottas had stayed on the F1 grid for 2025, nobody was going to be outraged. He's not become one of those over-the-hill drivers who's clogging up a seat. 

Instead, he's become a victim of this year's driver market chaos. In the frame for several seats, but never the prime candidate. 

Usually a driver in that situation ends up somewhere. But the influx of new faces coming in for next year made him vulnerable, and when you're already at the back of the grid, that can leave you without anywhere else to fall into. 

The fact the Sauber has been so bad this year won't have helped, as Bottas has had very little chance to show what he's still made of. 

Bortoleto's the logical long-term play

Scott Mitchell-Malm

The way Sauber/Audi has gone about its driver business this year has been inefficient and confusing at times. Losing primary target Carlos Sainz to Williams, when you've got the might of one of the world's biggest car manufacturers behind you, was embarrassing - and although there was a change of F1 boss towards the end of that process, that's no excuse.

It's not really seemed much clearer since Mattia Binotto took charge, but that may well be that the reality of the task facing him has properly dawned on the ex-Ferrari man.

The Race's interview with Bortoleto

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The list of things to improve is very long and frankly picking Bortoleto or Bottas to partner Hulkenberg is extremely unlikely to make much difference in the short-term.

With that in mind, bringing in Bortoleto is logical as a long-term play. Assuming Audi affords him the patience he deserves in these circumstances. There's little point in Bottas extending his F1 career to have another year or two enduring seasons like this one - which should be the low point for the team, but again, there's so much to fix who knows if it's possible to actually make that big a step next year. Or even in 2026.  

Bortoleto has more time on his side. He's an interesting young talent, his candidacy was already perfectly legitimate, and if he closes out the F2 title this year then there is no doubting he has clear F1 potential. The question is whether he'll be able to realise that at Sauber or Audi in the coming years. 

Always a fan of new talent

Gary Anderson

I think it’s great to see another new driver getting an opportunity in F1, I have always been a fan of young up and coming talent and hopefully Sauber next year and Audi the year after will give him a car to show his true talent.

Bortoleto will have a good benchmark with new team-mate Hulkenberg so if the car is not a front runner he just needs to focus on being nip and tuck with him.

As for Bottas, yes, he probably deserves another shot.

He showed well against Hamilton in the Mercedes on occasion but not often enough, he has not had the car at Sauber but even still he didn’t appear to have that commitment to building a team that was struggling, basically since he went to Sauber he just disappeared off the scene. Not all his fault but I think he could have showed more fire in his belly and showed he cared just that bit more.

If he gets a reserve driver role at Mercedes it will keep him in the paddock and with all these new drivers coming in you never know what might happen.

The Bearman domino effect

Ben Anderson

I think we’re witnessing the domino effect created by Ollie Bearman being stunning in his unexpected F1 cameos for Ferrari and Haas while being underwhelming in F2.

What you need to know about Gabriel Bortoleto

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Bearman and Kimi Antonelli have both gained promotion to F1 ahead of others in F2 who have performed much more consistently. Meanwhile, Bearman and Williams stand-in Franco Colapinto have both looked immediately on a similar level to very highly rated and established F1 midfielders in Nico Hulkenberg and Alex Albon.

Liam Lawson too has then looked immediately more consistently impressive than Daniel Ricciardo did at RB, and so Red Bull too can feel emboldened to have a clear-out of more of the old guard if it so wishes - and potentially find space for both Lawson and Colapinto rather than persisting with proven race winners who might be well past their best.

Bottas has been quietly impressive this season in a terrible car. Yes, the ultimate level of Zhou is questionable - but Bottas has also totally destroyed him this year.

He could very well have been the one paired alongside Bortoleto - if only Andreas Seidl hadn’t already committed Audi to a long-term deal with Hulkenberg. With Alpine also opting for an academy product over a proven driver there is simply nowhere else to go for Bottas, who is probably the one victim of this new wave who doesn’t really deserve to drop off the grid. Sympathy corner awaits!

But what is undeniable is that changing of the guard, and more faith rightly being placed in young and relatively unproven drivers. Bortoleto also comes with the added bonus of having been truly impressive in F3 and F2! Signing him was a gamble well worth taking for Audi. Bottas is simply the most unfortunate victim of this latest young driver revolution.

Bottas probably won't miss this

Matt Beer

As a general rule, I'm pro Formula 1 drivers retiring from a 'this is as good as it's going to get' position and am sceptical about the chances of someone who's won races in a top team achieving much, keeping their motivation or having much satisfaction when they drop down into a midfield squad at the tail end of a career.

But the high points of Bottas's Alfa Romeo/Sauber stint proved me wrong on that front - he seemed to be thriving, giving the team some great moments and driving better than he was when weighed down by both Lewis Hamilton's shadow and the pressure of expectation he was putting on himself at Mercedes.

That was until Sauber nosedived in 2024. His driving and motivation don't seem like they've declined, but how long would that remain the case in a situation where points are unthinkable and reaching Q2 is a massive achievement?

Bottas gives the impression he's really enjoying life these days. If he can keep an F1 involvement elsewhere (and a Mercedes role seems a great fit) he might actually find he enjoys life even more without having to spend some of it dragging a slow F1 car around at the back of a grand prix field.

I hope Sauber hasn't been swayed by Colapinto

Jack Benyon

This might be unfair as it could have made the decision before, but I can’t help feeling Colapinto’s success has influenced Sauber's choice.

Colapinto might be a generational talent, or he might be someone who struggles when the pressure of a full-time seat is on. Either way, he shouldn't be used to influence the fortune of a totally different driver.

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We've seen what happens many times when teams make rash decisions on small sample sets.

Bortoleto has clearly impressed at McLaren and is a very talented driver.

But so is 10-time race winner Bottas, who has far more experience of working in a top, manufacturer-based team at the sharp end than even Hulkenberg.

I get wanting to get Bortoleto in to have him 'ready' for 2026. But even if he's up to speed on track, off it he still won't have the experience of developing an F1 car for new regulations.

At least Sauber hasn't gone for the safe option, which certainly keeps things interesting. And Brazil deserves another F1 driver.

McLaren might regret letting Bortoleto go

Josh Suttill

Bottas doesn't deserve to lose his place on the F1 grid but Bortoleto also deserved a place when he's been beating the likes of Bearman and Antonelli.

He's a huge talent - someone who is performing so well in F2 despite lacking the testing of his rivals - and he'll give Hulkenberg a big headache once he gets up to speed.

There's an Audi team there for Bortoleto to make himself the future of. Yes, the Sauber team is in a dire state right now, but the improvements could come thick and fast with the significant resources behind it.

The role Bortoleto plays in that might make McLaren come to regret its decision to let him go after a single season in its driver development programme.

If Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri's ultra-close competition results in one of them leaving before the end of their long-term deals, as it stands, McLaren won't have another exciting rookie to put in to ease the pain.

Would Red Bull or Mercedes have done the same thing if it had a star in its junior ranks? I don't think so.