The Miami Grand Prix produced arguably the biggest on-track talking point of the season on Sunday as Lando Norris romped home for his maiden Formula 1 victory.
McLaren ended their three-year wait for an F1 race win with Lando Norris accelerating away from Max Verstappen after Logan Sargeant’s collision with Kevin Magnussen brought out the safety car.
While Haas weren’t happy with their Danish driver, journalists Scott Mitchell-Malm, Mark Hughes and Edd Straw have explained on The Race Podcast, that there was another very unhappy driver on the grid.
Esteban Ocon finally scored Alpine’s first point of the season, battling with former teammate Fernando Alonso in the closing stages before eventually finishing 10.
It leaves Williams and Sauber rooted to the bottom of the Constructors’ Championship after six race weekends.
Neither team looked likely to finish in the top ten at any stage on Sunday, and the Miami Grand Prix may have made Valtteri Bottas’s mind up regarding his plans for 2025 in more ways than one.
The Finnish watched on ahead of the race as Sauber confirmed Nico Hulkenberg as their first driver for next season.
It’s looking less and less likely that he’ll be joining the experienced German within the team’s ranks.
READ MORE: Sauber driver Valtteri Bottas’ life outside F1 from girlfriend to wine and gin
Valtteri Bottas made his mind up on 2025 Sauber exit at the Miami Grand Prix
Mitchell-Malm explained that Sauber decided before the Miami Grand Prix to replace Bottas’s race engineer Alex Chan, without consulting the Finn.
He also explained that Bottas is believed to not have been too impressed with the timing of the announcement to sign Nico Hulkenberg, as opposed to the news itself.
This may have an impact on his future and Mitchell-Malm explained: “He basically got annoyed by his own team coming into the weekend.
“The suggestion was that Bottas didn’t get a huge amount of notice before they announced that [Nico Hulkenberg signing for 2025].
“Obviously, that news came only a few days after the Chinese Grand Prix where Sauber had said publicly that they needed to give the current drivers a better car and that now wasn’t the time to decide on drivers.
“I think Bottas feels a little bit put out in that team at the moment and if I were a betting man, I would suggest that he will not be there next season.
“I think it’s still possible, but I feel like he is lower down the team list than he wants to be and I think they might have just rubbed him up the wrong way and made him not want to stay there anyway.”
Mark Hughes added: “Before this weekend, his preference would be to remain there and I think now his preference is to go somewhere else.”
Edd Straw concluded: “Which is probably good because I think he was only really in contention as an emergency spare if they didn’t get their other drivers set.
“So, interesting to see where Bottas starts to pushing for. Obviously, his management have been talking to plenty of people, so he’ll be a contender for some drives lower down the grid.”
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber from team principal to Audi future
Valtteri Bottas is surely leaving Sauber before Audi takeover in 2026
If the Miami Grand Prix was the final straw for Valtteri Bottas at Sauber, then he’s going to need to find a new team quickly for 2025.
He confirmed before the race that he’s already trying to put plans into place for next season, explained in the pre-race press conference: “[I’m] obviously speaking to multiple teams. Some talks have advanced more than the others, so we’ll see.”
There are 11 seats left to fill to complete the 2025 grid, but some of those are already out of reach for the Finn.
If he doesn’t stay at Sauber, that brings the number down to 10 and Lance Stroll’s rolling contract situation at Aston Martin rules out another move for Bottas.
He’s not going to be Max Verstappen’s new teammate at Red Bull and it makes no sense for him to join RB either.
That means there are four potential teams Bottas could end up at if he leaves Sauber: Mercedes, Alpine, Williams and Haas.
Where could Valtteri Bottas end up next season?
The least likely option out of that quartet is Mercedes, although it has been suggested in the past that a move is in the ‘realms of possibility’ for the Finn to return.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli is Toto Wolff’s preferred choice, but Bottas might be a useful stop-gap if he’s sent to Williams first to gain some experience.
Bottas might also be a useful addition to the Williams team himself alongside Alex Albon as James Vowles continues to build up the team.
Logan Sargeant looks very likely to lose his seat and Bottas’s experience could help them identify what’s going wrong with the car.
Haas are a team in very good form in 2024 and Bottas might end up targeting Nico Hulkenberg’s seat in a straight swap.
Oliver Bearman is expected to join the team next year meaning Bottas might end up in a straight shootout with Kevin Magnussen for a 2025 seat, who didn’t cover himself in glory in Miami.
The final option is Alpine who are a works team and appear to be on the up after earning their first point of the season.
Bruno Famin is ‘ready to react’ if both of his current leave in the winter and that could benefit the 34-year-old.
The post ‘Made him not want to stay’: 229-race F1 driver has changed 2025 plans after disastrous Miami GP – journalist appeared first on F1 Oversteer.