AUGUST 13, 2024

What Choices Left for Audi and Alpine?

Following Williams’ announcement Carlos Sainz will join the team from the start of next year Alpine and Sauber/Audi are now the target of all the drivers still without a seat in Formula 1 for 2025.

Granted, there are still doubts about Sérgio Pérez’s situation in Red Bull beyond the end of this year and the name of Yuki Tsunoda’s future team mate is yet to be known, but for those two seats the choices are limited to Red Bull’s own pool of drivers.

This means the drivers’ market is now fully revolving around Alpine and Sauber/Audi, two teams that have changed the top management in the last week! Both Mattia Binotto and Oliver Oakes won’t have any time to enjoy Formula 1’s summer break, for even with the team’s factories on shutdown, they’ll be both working flat out in securing the best possible talent to driver their cars in 2025.

At Alpine, Pierre Gasly has been confirmed for the next couple of years, but the arrival of Briatore, first, and now Oakes, has changed the most likely criteria for choosing the Frenchman’s team mate. While Carlos Sainz and Valtteri Bottas had been in talks with Bruno Famin until Briatore took over, both drivers quickly dropped out of contention for the second Alpine seat once the Italian returned to Enstone. Sainz thought there was too much instability in the French team – and in Audi too – and opted to sign with Williams, while Bottas was not considered a good alternative by Briatore and had to look elsewhere to secure a seat for 2025.

Briatore’s links with Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso have put the drivers that are managed by his two former drivers in Alpine’s shopping list, with Jack Doohan seeming the favorite for the seat. Oakes, however, will also have a say on the choice of the second driver and may push for his current Formula 2 driver, Paul Aron, to get the seat.

At Audi it’s uncertain what Binotto will be looking for in Nico Hulkenberg’s 2025 team mate but the management inherited by the Italian is pushing to have Valtteri Bottas confirmed for at least another year, valuing stability, his technical feedback, working ethics and team player characteristics. But Mick Schumacher, who worked with Binotto at Ferrari, Alonso-managed Gabriel Bortoletto, plus Sauber’s juniors Theo Pourchaire, and Zoey Maloney may be also on his list of candidates. And should Red Bull fail to take its option over Liam Lawson’s services, the Kimi is also a strong candidate to get the second seat at Sauber.

Time works in favor of both teams, and they shouldn’t be in a hurry to make a decision, but Binotto may be tempted to make his choice quickly, as he wants to hit the ground running in 2025, in preparation for Audi’s official Formula 1 entry the following year.