Audi will take over from Sauber at the beginning of the 2026 Formula 1 season and have already secured one driver for their first campaign in the sport.
Nico Hulkenberg will leave Haas at the end of the year to sign for Sauber but his teammate is still not known.
Audi team principal Andreas Seidl has been speaking to Formula 1’s official website and explained who he’s keeping an eye on before making a final call on his 2025 line-up.
More than half of the teams on the grid still have at least one available seat for next season.
It means there are plenty of drivers seeking the best deal possible, especially with new regulations being introduced to the sport in 2026.
Seidl has admitted that he’s still monitoring how Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas perform this season.
The current Sauber pair are fighting to stay with a team that has huge potential once Audi take over.
Unfortunately, Audi also have plenty of other targets that they’re considering.
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Audi boss Andreas Seidl monitoring Sauber drivers Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas
When discussing who could join Nico Hulkenberg at Audi, one name is consistently coming up: Carlos Sainz.
Audi wouldn’t have been able to believe their luck when Ferrari announced before the start of the season that they were signing Lewis Hamilton.
It meant that Sainz would be without a drive for 2025 and as they began to ramp up their preparations for F1, he appeared to be the perfect fit.
His father – Carlos Sainz Sr. – has driven for Audi for a long time, winning the Dakar Rally at the beginning of the year in an RS Q e-tron.
Sainz is a multiple race winner in Formula 1 and at 29 still has years ahead of him in the sport.
However, one deadline has already passed for Sainz to sign the contract offered to him by the team.
They now want the Spaniard to decide before the Monaco Grand Prix and while it’s hard to see them walking away from negotiations if he asks for more time, eventually Audi will have to start exploring alternatives.
Andreas Seidl admits Audi are still monitoring how Bottas and Zhou perform this season.
While they might not be the perfect candidates, they could do a lot worse.
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Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas have both targeted Audi seat
Talking about the current Sauber drivers, Seidl said: “We are talking with Valtteri [Bottas] and Zhou [Guanyu] and keep monitoring their performance.
“We are grateful for what they have done and are still doing for Kick Sauber. At the same time, we are out in the market, to have all options ready once we want to make a decision later in the year.
“The driver market is difficult to predict at the moment.
“Having Nico [Hulkenberg] nailed down, there is no specific rush to fix the second seat. We prefer to monitor the performance of our drivers and the others we are looking [for] – and then make the best decision.”
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Where could Sauber’s driver end up in 2025?
If Seidl decides after monitoring Bottas and Zhou that Audi need to look at other targets, both drivers could still stay in Formula 1.
The feeling is that Bottas is less enthusiastic about staying with Sauber beyond 2024 anyway after decisions made behind the scenes before the Miami Grand Prix.
Bottas has been linked with a move to Haas and could be the perfect teammate for teenager Oliver Bearman.
Zhou has been linked with Alpine but he’s also emerged as one of the favourites to join Haas.
Both drivers will want clarity from Sauber sooner rather than later so they can start exploring other options.
The post ‘We are talking’: Audi boss admits he’s ‘monitoring’ the performance of two F1 drivers ahead of 2025 decision appeared first on F1 Oversteer.