{"id":23606,"date":"2024-08-29T07:10:14","date_gmt":"2024-08-29T11:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=23606"},"modified":"2024-08-30T06:52:11","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T10:52:11","slug":"valtteri-bottas-could-lose-final-f1-lifeline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/29\/valtteri-bottas-could-lose-final-f1-lifeline\/","title":{"rendered":"Valtteri Bottas could lose final F1 lifeline"},"content":{"rendered":"

Valtteri Bottas is fighting for his F1 career, as fewer and fewer seats remain on next year’s grid. He is still in contention for a new contract, with Sauber<\/a>\u00a0undecided on next year’s line-up. Still, Bottas<\/a> finds himself in a position he wanted to avoid at the start of 2024.<\/p>\n

Bottas only has one path to stay in F1<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Sauber Negotiations continue<\/h4>\n

At the beginning of the season, Bottas repeated a familiar line as the driver market showed its first signs of life.<\/p>\n

Much like in previous years, he emphasised the importance of securing a multi-year deal.<\/p>\n

Following years of uncertain one-year deals at Mercedes<\/a>, the Finn has prioritised long-term agreements since leaving Brackley.<\/p>\n

It is partly because Sauber offered Bottas a longer contract that he joined the team in 2022.<\/p>\n

Of course, the situation at Hinwil is very different today.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Valtteri Bottas, Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber C44; 2024 Dutch Grand Prix, Formula One World Championship<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Audi are overseeing changes ahead of the 2026 regulations, with Mattia Binotto<\/a> and Jonathan Wheatley arriving as the team’s new leadership.<\/p>\n

Bottas has spoken to Binotto about a renewal, which the Finn revealed after the summer break.<\/p>\n

However, as reported by LWOS, there are a plethora of other drivers under consideration.<\/p>\n

This complicates things for Bottas, especially since Sauber’s C44 makes it difficult to deliver eye-catching performances.<\/p>\n

Competition brings uncertainty<\/h4>\n

Before the first dominos began to fall in the market, Valtteri Bottas was linked to a few teams.<\/p>\n

Williams<\/a> were initially seen as a realistic destination for the Finn, although Carlos Sainz’s availability<\/a> prevented a potential move.<\/p>\n

Alpine were another team reportedly considering his services but instead opted to give Jack Doohan an opportunity – a decision partly influenced by their lack of competitiveness.<\/p>\n

In any case, there is only one realistic option left for Bottas.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old’s issue is that, as shown on numerous occasions, he is not Sauber’s priority.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Valtteri Bottas, Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber, arrives at the track ; 2024 Dutch Grand Prix, Formula One World Championship<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After all, the team elected to sign Nico Hulkenberg before anyone else.<\/p>\n

Audi are understood to be considering other young drivers to drive alongside the German veteran.<\/p>\n

Gabriel Bortoleto is among them, though Robert Shwartzman’s surprise FP1 appearance<\/a> in Zandvoort is evidence that Sauber have a very extensive shortlist.<\/p>\n

Even in a best-case scenario for Bottas, a new contract with Hinwil is unlikely to be the long-term deal he prefers.<\/p>\n

However, should things go against the former Mercedes driver, continuing in F1 next season could become an impossibility.<\/p>\n

At least for now, his future in the paddock is hanging by a thread.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Valtteri Bottas is fighting for his F1 career, as fewer and fewer seats remain on next year’s grid. He is still in contention for a new contract, with Sauber\u00a0undecided on next year’s line-up. Still, Bottas finds himself in a position he wanted to avoid at the start of 2024. Bottas only has one path to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":23493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4,3],"tags":[2220,68,465,345,225],"class_list":["post-23606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2024-formula-1-season","tag-f1","tag-f1-news","tag-sauber","tag-valtteri-bottas"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}