McLaren ready to rival Williams in late F1 driver market move

McLaren are prepared to reach a “solution” with Sauber should the team offer McLaren junior Gabriel Bortoleto a place on the 2025 F1 grid.

Sauber is the only non-Red Bull team on the grid that hasn’t confirmed its full line-up for next season despite being one of the first to begin the process when they signed Nico Hulkenberg in April.

McLaren won’t hold Gabriel Bortoleto back if he’s offered the Sauber seat

Six months later he’s still waiting to hear who will be his new team-mate.

Although it was thought that Valtteri Bottas was leading the running, his talks reportedly stalled over salary and duration with Mick Schumacher coming to the fore. However, it’s now being reported that Bortoleto as well as Williams’ junior Franco Colapinto are also still in the conversation.

Colapinto has already shown the F1 paddock what he can do, twice scoring in his four starts for Williams, while Bortoleto is on his way to making it back-to-back titles. He won the 2023 Formula 3 title and currently sits P1 in the Formula 2 standings with two rounds remaining.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown says the Woking team won’t stand in the 20-year-old’s way should Sauber offer him a race seat

“He’s a great racing driver,” Brown told the media in Austin. “Right now, our priority is to help him 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 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.”

More on Sauber’s 2025 F1 options

? Audi F1 2025 driver line-up: The five best options to partner Nico Hulkenberg

?F1 2025 driver line-up: Who is already confirmed for the 2025 grid?

But while McLaren team boss Andrea Stella is open to finding a “solution” with Sauber, he admits he would like to hold onto Bortoleto in some capacity.

“If [Mattia] Binotto came to me, when you have such a talent, definitely you’re not going to stop him having a chance in Formula 1,” he said.

“At the same time, we would be definitely interested in finding a way to keep him in the McLaren family because I think he is a talent that in the future could be important for McLaren.

“We are safe for the long term with our two drivers. We couldn’t be any happier. But definitely we would like to keep him in the McLaren family. But I’m sure we could find a solution.”

The 20-year-old and his fellow Sauber candidates may have to wait a bit longer, perhaps even until the end of the season, for the team’s decision as Binotto has made it clear he’s in no rush to name Hulkenberg’s 2025 team-mate.

“We have the luxury of not being in a hurry, all the other teams having decided on their line-up,” said the Italian.

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