Audi is poised to take complete ownership of the Sauber team once an antitrust review of the deal has concluded.
That’s expected to happen in January 2025, leaving the German marque the sole owner of the organisation.
Swedish billionaire Finn Rausing is the majority shareholder with a 75 percent stake in the operation for the moment, with Audi owning the remaining 25 percent.
However, with the sale agreed, Audi has already begun to assert its influence.
That saw driver Nico Hulkenberg announced last week with Carlos Sainz linked to the second seat, leaving incumbents Bottas and Zhou Guanyu out of a drive next year.
There have been short-term changes too, with a Bottas working with a new race engineer this weekend. The Finn had been engineered by Alex Chan since joining Sauber in 2022.
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“I think that’s more a question for the team,” the 10-time grand prix winner said when asked the motivation for the change.
“It was quite a quite a sudden change. Obviously, it’s a Sprint weekend, so working with a fresh guy will be not easy, but also trying to make most out of it.
“He’s getting lots of support but yeah, it’s quite a sudden, sudden change.”
Sauber is in an awkward phase as it straddles the period before Audi takes complete control.
It will adopt the German car maker’s name for 2026, by which point it is hoped the Swiss-based F1 organisation will be more competitive than it is now.
Pressure to deliver on that explains why key personnel decisions are already being made.
“Things are changing,” observed Bottas, who was clearly unimpressed with his engineering switch.
“Obviously, some changes are for long term. I don’t obviously know all the reasons behind every decision that is being made, but it just tells us that the change is happening.
“People are leaving and people are coming in.”
Out of contract at year-end, Bottas’ own future is unclear.
In his third and final year with Sauber, the 34-year-old has comparatively few options.
He has been linked with a return to Mercedes, where he’d be a stop-gap ahead of Kimi Antonelli’s arrival.
The young Italian is a Mercedes driver and is in his first season of Formula 2.
However, at just 18 there are concerns he’s too young to be immediately promoted into the championship-winning F1 team.
It’s thought he could, like George Russell before him, be farmed out to Williams in place of Logan Sargeant for a year or two.
Should that happen, Mercedes would need to bridge a gap in terms of its second driver.
“The timing is quite early,” Bottas noted of Hulkenberg’s signing at Sauber.
“A little bit surprising but the driver market is starting to move, obviously.
“It also kind of makes sense; he’s German and Audi’s made it pretty clear that they want a German driver.
“So it’s all good. Let’s see what happens next.”
Along with Bottas, Sainz too has been linked with a switch to Brackley after being dumped in favour of Lewis Hamilton for 2025.
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