The Method 1 season is about to return, with subsequent week’s United States Grand Prix. That race week, which incorporates one of many last three F1 Dash races on the 2024 calendar, kicks off a tripleheader that can see the grid go from Austin to Mexico Metropolis, and eventually to Brazil.
One of many main storylines considerations one of many last seats remaining on the grid for the 2025 season. Over at Sauber, whereas the workforce has confirmed veteran driver Nico Hülkenberg for one of many spots, the workforce has but to announce who his teammate will probably be subsequent yr.
Now Mattia Binotto, the workforce’s new Chief Working Officer and Chief Technical Officer, has confirmed that Mick Schumacher is within the operating for that spot.
Binotto, who joined the Audi operation this summer season (Sauber will transition to the Audi works operation for the 2026 F1 season) spoke with Italian outlet Corriere dello Sport forward of subsequent week’s United States Grand Prix and confirmed that Schumacher is without doubt one of the choices the workforce is contemplating to drive alongside Hülkenberg subsequent yr.
“Undoubtedly, we’re evaluating it,” stated Binotto when requested if Schumacher was an possibility. “I met him and spoke to him, I’ve recognized him for a very long time having been a part of the Ferrari Driver Academy. I do know his strengths and weaknesses, he is without doubt one of the names we take note of.”
Binotto additionally outlined the qualities the workforce is in search of when filling that second seat, and Schumacher may present the workforce with the “better of each worlds,” given what they’re in search of.
“We will afford the posh of not speeding, since all the opposite groups have determined their line-up,” added Binotto. “Two important elements: on the one hand, expertise to set the expansion path. On the opposite, a younger, gifted driver who can accompany us on the trail to the highest.”
Given the expertise Hülkenberg brings to the desk, the workforce may not be centered as a lot on discovering a veteran driver alongside him for subsequent season. Valtteri Bottas, who at the moment drives for Sauber, stays within the operating, however he may not fulfill the second attribute the workforce is in search of.
Different drivers who’ve emerged as choices for Sauber may not fulfill that have requirement, drivers akin to Franco Colapinto — who has shined for Williams since changing Logan Sargeant mid-season — and Gabriel Bortoleto, who at the moment leads the F2 Championship standings with a pair of race weekends left.
Schumacher, given his two seasons as a full-time driver on the F1 grid with Haas, satisfies that have element whereas additionally checking off the youth field, provided that he is not going to flip 26 till subsequent March.
That would make him a range that checks each bins for the workforce.
