Opinion: Why now is the right time for Sauber to say goodbye to Valtteri Bottas

Taking the lead role for the first time in his Formula 1 career when he joined Sauber in 2022, three years later it’s time for Valtteri Bottas to take his final bow, bask in the applause, and exit stage left.

Because surely, despite the many reports to the contrary, his time on the Formula 1 grid is up. Surely?

Valtteri Bottas should bow out, and do it graciously

Bottas arrived on the Formula 1 grid with Williams in 2013 and over four years scored nine podiums, twice helped the team to third in the Constructors’ Championship, and won the team-mate head-to-head every year.

That earned him a promotion to the sharp end of the grid with Mercedes where he went from the star of the show to Lewis Hamilton’s “sensational wingman”.

Not the dream, but also not something to be scoffed at as he twice finished runner-up in the Drivers’ standings and stood on the top step of the F1 podium on 10 occasions. His points also helped Mercedes in their eight-year run of Constructors’ Championship titles.

His move to Sauber, albeit at the other end of the grid, in 2022 was supposed to be the start of the Valtteri Bottas show, then-team boss Fred Vasseur speaking about a “strong team player with experience at the sharp end of the grid”.

He was, Vasseur said, “the right driver to help Alfa Romeo [as the team was known back then] make a step forward towards the front of the grid.”

Vasseur got that one wrong.

Whether the blame lies with Bottas or the Hinwil team, or a combination of driver and team, Alfa Romeo/Kick/Stake/Sauber declined in every one of his three years, each year taking another – dare I say – leap backwards.

From 49 points to 10 to zero, Bottas sits P22 in the Drivers’ Championship in a car that is lacking in pace, is too sensitive and struggles in low- and medium-speed corners. That today there’s also bouncing in the high-speed corners has done nothing to bolster the drivers’ confidence in the C44.

“The whole car is just too peaky, too much on the edge, it’s not really a stable platform and anything that distracts it like crosswind, it just makes things a whole lot worse,” Bottas bemoaned.

But while it is clear that the car is a huge part of the problem, Sauber not helped by instability in management either, the driver also plays a role in car development and there’s seemingly been none of that in the last three years based on the declining results.

Sauber needs a reset. So too does Bottas.

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The team is halfway there as either Bottas or Zhou are leaving at the end of the season as Sauber have confirmed Nico Hulkenberg for 2025. In doing so they’ve fulfilled the need for an experienced driver, former boss Andrea Stella explaining that when he announced the German.

“With his speed, his experience and his commitment to teamwork, he will be an important part of the transformation of our team – and of Audi’s F1 project,” he said. “Nico is a strong personality, and his input, on a professional and personal level, will help us to make progress both in the development of the car and in building up the team.”

He’s effectively ticking all the boxes that would make Bottas the frontrunner for the seat. It therefore leaves Bottas surplus to requirements.

And thinking bigger picture, the same picture that saw Red Bull say farewell to Daniel Ricciardo a few weeks back, Sauber need to look to the future and what comes next. Especially in light of Audi’s takeover of the team that will be run as a works outfit from 2026 onwards.

The team needs a young committed driver, a star in the making, alongside Hulkenberg in the car and there are a host of them lining up from Williams’ rookie Franco Colapinto, to McLaren’s Formula 2 championship leader Gabriel Bortoleto and even Sauber’s own 2023 F2 champion Theo Pourchaire.

Colapinto has already shown the Formula 1 paddock that taking a risk on a youngster is not necessarily the gamble that it was seen to be in yesteryear, the Argentinian impressing in his three races and even scoring points – four – at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

He’s not the only rookie excelling at the job; Oliver Bearman scored on his Ferrari debut in Saudi Arabia despite only stepping into the car on the Saturday and then made history as he scored a point when he filled in at Haas, P10 in Baku.

Even Mercedes, a team that is expected to fight for race wins and championships, have seen the light and will race Kimi Antonelli next season while Helmut Marko has blatantly said “youth” is the way forward and that, in an ideal world, he would like to put “someone from our junior program” in the Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen next season.

Putting a rookie in the car is an eye-catching statement of intent, it’s one that says the team is building for the future. The timing for Sauber also couldn’t be more perfect.

Unless they intend to have a middle-age [F1 speaking] line-up when Audi takes over, they’re going to need a youngster sooner rather than later. And a time when the team is scrapping to get away from the back row of the grid, never mind score points, there’d be no pressure on said rookie’s shoulders and he’d have the time to learn from the experienced Hulkenberg before any pressure comes from being a works Audi driver.

Sauber should take a page out of those books as they need someone who is driven to prove himself, not someone who claims he is “actually driving better than what I did at Mercedes, but obviously it’s not that visible”. Obviously.

Because let’s be honest, Bottas seems to be having more fun – and more success – with his butt calendars, gin brands, and cycling. If anyone is set up for success away from F1, it’s him.

He’s had his moment on F1’s centre stage and he’s achieved more than most. He clearly had something but whatever that something was, it’s getting harder to see it in evidence. It’s now time to take that bow and exit gracefully.

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