Young drivers dream of reaching Formula 1 but once they’re on the grid, they’ve only completed half of the battle.
Staying in the paddock is an equally difficult task and then navigating the piranha club to make sure you’re in the right team is an extremely tough challenge on top of that.
The 2025 driver’s market is starting to shake out but journalist Mat Coch – speaking on the Pit Talk Podcast – believes one driver’s career might be coming to an end because of the latest career change they made.
Prior success is no guarantee of future triumphs as several drivers are discovering right now.
Alpine drivers Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly have witnessed the team go from fourth in the Constructors’ Championship to trying to avoid finishing bottom.
Lewis Hamilton has recognised that things haven’t been going to plan at Mercedes and he’s jumped ship to Ferrari for 2025.
However, underinvestment at Sauber over the past few seasons could now see Valtteri Bottas’s Formula 1 career come to an end.
The £150,000-a-week driver was frequently challenging for race wins at Mercedes and has more than 50 podiums to his name.
However, when it was time to move on from the Silver Arrows, he chose the Swiss outfit and may be paying the price now as a result.
READ MORE: Sauber driver Valtteri Bottas’ life outside F1 from girlfriend to wine and gin
Underinvestment at Sauber could cost Valtteri Bottas his F1 career
Valtteri Bottas worked his way up at Williams after winning GP3 in 2011 and earned a move to Mercedes as a result, replacing Nico Rosberg after his shock retirement.
The Finn was the perfect teammate for Lewis Hamilton, finishing the top three of the Drivers’ Championship on four out of five occasions while he was with the team.
However, in 2022, Toto Wolff decided it was time for George Russell to be introduced to the team, meaning Bottas had to find a new seat.
Bottas chose Sauber but he may not have been fully aware of the underinvestment within the team over the years.
They overachieved in his first season in 2022 alongside Zhou Guanyu, finishing 6 in the Constructors’ Championship, with the 34-year-old scoring the majority of the team’s points.
However, 2023 saw the team take a backwards step and pit stop issues this season have undermined any progress they’ve made as they continue to search for their first point.
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Valtteri Bottas a victim of circumstances in search for 2025 F1 drive
Talking about the Finnish driver, Coch said: “Valtteri Bottas, the problem is the Sauber’s been so bad in recent years that he’s not been able to show what he can do.
“This guy’s a 10-time Grand Prix winner, he out-qualified Lewis Hamilton more than realistically had rights to do, so he’s a quality peddler.
“And yet the last couple of years at Sauber haven’t netted what I hoped to get out of that.
“He’d hoped to push that team forward, it hasn’t gone forward, it’s just been underinvested basically and there’s a very good reason for that which is probably beyond what we’ve got time for here.
“But that’s not gone the way he planned it, it’s probably going to spell the end of his career because Alpine, [Esteban] Ocon and [Pierre] Gasly, there has been talk of Ocon potentially going to Audi.”
Where could Valtteri Bottas end up next season?
The underinvestment Bottas has witnessed at Sauber is now being replaced by serious spending by Audi as they prepare to take over the team.
Nico Hulkenberg has already been announced as their first driver for 2025.
Audi want Carlos Sainz to be his teammate and have offered him a contract that Helmut Marko claims Red Bull can’t even match.
Valtteri Bottas will be exploring his options on the grid now and might be an option for his first team Williams.
He’s also on Haas’s radar and could perform a straight swap with Hulkenberg in 2025.
Bottas has 10 Grand Prix victories to his name, to see him unable to find a seat on the grid next year would be a real surprise, especially as his lack of points this season is more down to the car than his own ability.
The post ‘Been so bad’: Underinvestment could now ‘spell the end’ of £150k-a-week driver’s F1 career – journalist appeared first on F1 Oversteer.