The game of musical chairs for F1 drivers is coming to an end.
Did one of the final players in that match give up his 2025 eligibility?
As we wrote the other day, there are only four open seats in F1 next season. One is Mercedes’ second seat, which will be vacated when Lewis Hamilton moves to Ferrari at the end of this season. Young prodigy Andrea Kimi Antonelli has long been rumored to be the man for the job.
The other is the seat next to Pierre Gasly at Alpine, who made a belated move for Carlos Sainz Jr., but his decision to sign with Williams has led the French-based team to change course, with Jack Doohan and Mick Schumacher now among their options.
The third seat, which will remain open next year, is the second seat at Visa Cash App RB F1 Team. The team signed Yuki Tsunoda to another year at the start of this season, but Daniel Ricciardo’s status for 2025 remains unclear. Will Ricciardo perform well enough to retain his place for the rest of this season, or will Liam Lawson be promoted from his current reserve position?
Finally, there’s the second seat at Sauber, which currently has two drivers, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, but has already signed Nico Hulkenberg as its driver from next year onwards as the team becomes Audi’s works team in 2026.
Nothing definitive has been said by Sauber about the second seat but there are several rumoured candidates including both Bottas and Zhou as well as Schumacher – has Bottas given any major hints as to who that driver will be?
Post to Instagram Story The driver shared some pictures from the race track, Hyland, a cloud-based technology service It is one of Sauber’s partners.
Among the photos was an image of what appears to be a customised Audi R8 GT, bearing Bottas’ logo and number.
Now, this could be nothing, or a harmless connection – Bottas could simply like the car so much that he wants one for himself. It’s also possible that this is part of a promotional series for Hyland, as the Audi R8 also bears Hyland’s name.
Alternatively, Bottas could be working towards some big news to be announced soon.
