Sauber driver Valtteri Bottas has insisted that he still has options for extending his F1 career beyond the end of this season when his current contract comes to an end.
Bottas joined the squad when it was Alfa Romeo in 2022, and is hoping to continue into its next incarnation as the Audi works team once the buyout is complete in time for the 2026 season.
But This week, the team confirmed that it had signed Nico Hulkenberg from Haas on a multi-year contract to join their line-up next season, leaving only one berth still available for Bottas to aim for.
Bottas said this week that even if things don't work out at Sauber, he still has possible ways open to him to keep him on the grid moving forward.
“No, there are options. I have the feeling that things will start soon," he insisted, adding that “talks have started” and that “it should be an interesting few weeks” ahead.
One possibility might be a return to Williams, the team he left in 2017 on short notice to replace the retiring Nico Rosberg at Mercedes. While he was at Brackley, Bottas worked closely with now-Williams team principal James Vowles.
But it looks unlikely that Bottas will simply swap roles with Hulkenberg and end up at Haas, where Kevin Magnussen is expected to be retained alongside Oliver Bearman who made his mark subbing for Carlos Sainz at Ferrari in Saudi Arabia.
Nor is Bottas or his current team mate Zhou Guanyu expected to be in the running to stay at Sauber. The Chinese driver admitted recently that the prospect of fighting it out for a seat had made for "intense" competition recently.
“Of course it’s always quite a competition in the team, you know, you want to be the best, that’s clear, for your own personal future career," Zhou told Formula 1’s Beyond the Grid podcast. "I think it’s the same for everyone.
"Definitely, let’s say, the first year compared to now, it’s a bit more intense," he said when asked about his current relationship with Bottas. "Always fighting a bit more on track.
“But what I do say is that he's still there to share information, to be able to make a step together, try to improve as a team, improve our package all the way around," he added.
"We always do the right thing, and whoever can perform can come out on top," he added. "There’s no, let’s say, too clever, or eager feeling between any of us, even in the race craft.
Zhou added that it wasn't a case that "if one guy is ahead, the other guy is trying to use him to protect a little bit to help his race if we’re only fighting for the final spot."
“We definitely are working still as a team," he stated. "But of course, I think this year for all the drivers on the grid with the contracts expiring, everybody wants to show their own potential.
“Everybody wants to be the best of themselves for whatever reason for their career," he accepted. “So I think, yeah, we do want to beat each other. We want to be the best in our team. But we’re still team players in the same way.”
Whatever the future holds for him., Zhou is hoping to get something settled sooner rather than pater having been kept on a series of single-season contracts he's been limited to up to now.
“I definitely prefer to be getting sorted and knowing what I’m doing for the next few years, so that I can be fully committed to the programme - to the project going ahead - with any team.
"As a rookie coming into F1, it’s not like maybe 10 years ago that a new driver come to F1 and they always had a longer two, three years contract," he pointed out. "Now teams want to see individual contracts, want to see you perform.
“I feel like having individual yearly contracts is tough for the mental side," he argued. "You want to limit your mistakes while at the same time you want to show your passion of progression as a driver to the team.
“So that’s where the hard thing comes," he said, adding that teams leaving it until later in the year to offer contracts meant that drivers could be left with no options by that point.
"They can give you the one you can sign, he said. "That’s where those things become very tricky for the drivers.”
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