How has Mattio Binotto's signing changed the driver market?
As part of the management shake-up, Audi announced ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix that Andreas Seidl will leave its F1 project. Departing from McLaren, the German started in his role for Audi in January last year.
Seidl's place will be taken over by former Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto, who will head up its Formula 1 project as part of a major management shake-up. The Swiss-Italian will commence his work on August 1.
Kick Sauber that will become Audi's works outfit in 2026 has already confirmed a driver for the 2025 F1 season with Nico Hulkenberg set to join the Hinwil-headquartered team for next year.
However, current drivers Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu are currently fighting for securing the second season, but it is believed that the team aims to secure the services of Carlos Sainz, who will leave Ferrari at the conclusion of the current championship.
Asked whether he was aware about the bigh management shake-up at Sauber/Audi, Bottas noted: "Quite sudden news. I believe everything happened pretty quickly, but obviously those high-level decisions, we as drivers and many of the team members don't know really what's going on behind the scenes.
"But yeah, quite unexpected, but obviously welcoming Mattia to the team. And at the same time, I want to thank Mr Seidl and Mr Hoffman for their contribution to the team.
"It's a bit of a reset again. It's not a secret that when there's a new leadership, it will always take a bit of time, first of all. Mattia needs to know what are the weaknesses, what are the strengths, what are the priorities for short- and long-term improvements, and that's going to take a bit of time.
"Again, it's the third time now in three years, within three years, that we've had change at the top, so not a new situation, and the team shouldn't be too affected at this point. I think it's more the stuff for the future, and obviously time will show what will happen.
Asked about the priorities the team has to take into consideration, Bottas said: "I don't want to go too much into details. Obviously, some things are internal, but we know that compared to, let's say, at the moment, to the big teams, we're still lacking a bit of human power.
"We could do with more people, but at the same time, the team has been hiring and growing recently quite a bit. There are certain areas that we definitely need to focus on, at the factory but also with the car performance. We're at the moment not where we need to be and that's basically we needed some new upgrades and into the right direction."
Carlos Sainz has been linked with the Sauber/Audi seat since Ferrari announced that he will be replaced by seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton in 2025. The Spaniard, who confirmed after the Belgian Grand Prix that he will continue his F1 career at Williams next year, said that Binotto's signing had no impact on his future.
"I think, first of all, I'm not up to date with everything that is going on at every team but of course I think the arrival of Mattia to any team is positive, mainly because he has the experience of what it takes to build a team that is a top team nowadays, like it is at Ferrari.
"And he has that experience from Ferrari that he can bring into Audi. And I'm sure it's a great asset for them. And that's why they hired him. And yeah, of course, I wish him all the best there.
"I think my future is still being discussed and obviously analysed very carefully. And there's changes to a lot of teams that I'm looking at for next year pretty much every week.
"So there's changes, evolution on the team market as much as there is on the driver market. And I'm just going to keep giving myself time to take the decision to analyse all these things that keep changing. without giving you too many clues here.
