Few issues invigorate the Method 1 fanbase greater than an thrilling younger prospect being introduced to be becoming a member of the grid for the upcoming season.
As if the confirmations that Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Oliver Bearman and Jack Doohan weren’t sufficient, Sauber grew to become the newest staff to supply a possibility to a rookie in 2025 after they introduced McLaren improvement driver and present Method 2 championship chief Gabriel Bortoleto will probably be granted their second seat.
However Bortoleto’s arrival on the scene means each of the staff’s present drivers – Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu – will probably be off the grid subsequent season. Zhou’s tenure within the sport after three seasons could not have prompted a lot outrage from F1’s core followers, who largely really feel China’s first F1 driver has reached the top of his pure lifespan within the sport. However a number of RaceFans readers expressed their sympathies for Bottas showing to be out of luck on the finish of his thirteenth world championship season.
After Sauber couldn’t discover a approach inside the highest ten throughout final weekend’s moist and wild Brazilian Grand Prix, it’s tough to see the staff getting any alternatives to attain a degree earlier than the top of the season barring some sort of chaotic race. So it’s now practically inevitable that Bottas will end the season because the twenty third positioned driver within the championship.
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Will probably be simply Bottas’s worst season in his grand prix profession, even much less profitable than his debut marketing campaign in an particularly uncompetitive Williams in 2013, the place solely an eighth place within the penultimate spherical in the US saved him from going scoreless. With a finest end of thirteenth over the primary 21 rounds of the season up to now – one thing that even Logan Sargeant can boast a superior file to regardless of not having raced within the sequence since August – solely a degree can forestall Bottas from the ignominy of being the final positioned driver within the championship.
Glancing on the outcomes alone, it’s simple to imagine that Bottas has been mediocre at finest, unable to beat the poor efficiency of his automotive. Nevertheless, that’s an unkind evaluation of the fourth-most skilled driver on the present grid behind Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez.
For one factor, the 2024 Sauber is an particularly poor automotive relative to its rivals within the area. Over the 21 Q1 classes held this 12 months up to now, the C44 has been a median of 1.16% from the quickest time – a margin that’s hardly poor in comparison with a number of F1 vehicles all through historical past, however comfortably the worst of the ten vehicles on the present grid.
Sauber have noticeably slipped away from the pack because the season has progressed too. Zhou was closest to scoring the staff’s elusive first level of the championship within the season-opener in Bahrain, taking the eleventh place end that ensured he’ll doubtless end forward of Bottas within the championship.
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Bottas had what was doubtless Sauber’s finest alternative to attain factors all season within the fourth spherical in China. Having certified in tenth after the staff’s sole Q3 look all season, Bottas was in a real battle for the ultimate level in opposition to Nico Hulkenberg till, simply 19 laps in, a drivetrain failure put him out of competition. Bottas’s alternative for his finest consequence all season had gone begging by no fault of his personal.
In a automotive that’s routinely behind the sector, Zhou is the one actual barometer that Bottas’s efficiency may be measured in opposition to. Though the outcomes over their first two seasons collectively favoured Bottas, 2024 has seen Zhou trounced by his extra skilled staff mate. Bottas has solely been out-qualified by Zhou a single time on Saturdays, through the moist qualifying session at Silverstone. On Sundays, Bottas has completed forward of his staff mate 13 instances in races the place they have been each categorized.
Regardless of being within the slowest automotive, Bottas has solely been the final runner categorized on a single event all season. Whereas nearly at all times ending forward of his staff mate, Bottas beat Logan Sargeant’s Williams to the chequered flag as a rule, has completed forward of each Aston Martin drivers 4 instances every and, extremely, has even beat Sergio Perez 3 times in 2024.
If there’s a criticism to have about Bottas in 2024, it’s his begins. Regardless of usually qualifying forward of vehicles which are quicker, Bottas has struggled to carry onto these positions over the opening laps of grands prix. He has misplaced not less than one place on the primary lap of 11 rounds up to now with a internet place change of -3 taking into consideration all the rounds held up to now. Given that’s with a median grid place of fifteenth, the place there are much more vehicles forward of him than behind him, that doesn’t replicate properly on his race craft.
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Though he’s staring down the barrel of his first points-less season in Method 1, Bottas has beforehand advised that he feels he’s truly driving higher this 12 months than he was throughout his later seasons with Mercedes when he was successful races.
“When you have a look at this season and the final season, once you’re preventing in the direction of the again, clearly it’s a lot much less seen what you are able to do and what sort of performances are you having,” he mentioned.
“It’s just about in opposition to your team-mate that you could have a comparability. So for positive, you’re extra on the market for those who’re preventing throughout the factors and in the direction of the entrance finish. That’s simply the way it goes.
“However there are nonetheless individuals within the paddock who know what the actual efficiency is, and particularly throughout the staff. They know the way I’m performing weekend to weekend and that’s the primary factor.”
Sadly for Bottas, these performances don’t appear to have been sufficient to persuade his staff’s administration to stay with him alongside Hulkenberg for subsequent season. As he is not going to be racing a Method 1 automotive in 2025, it appears as if his time within the sport could have come to its finish so far as racing is worried. However don’t be to hasty to imagine that is the final we now have seen of the ten instances grand prix winner – in spite of everything, earlier than they discovered a option to return, even Hulkenberg, Kevin Magnussen and Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 careers as soon as appeared like they’d come to an finish earlier than him.
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