The Audi-owned Sauber team has justified its recent decision to assign a new race engineer to Valtteri Bottas starting with the previous Formula 1 race in Miami.
Bottas, unsure of his future in Formula 1, commented on Audi's decision to sign Nico Hulkenberg for 2025 and beyond as "surprising" and "early."
"I don't know," Bottas mentioned when asked about his own next move. "I'm obviously speaking to multiple teams, some talks have advanced more than the others. So we'll see."
Bottas is linked with potential moves to Haas, Alpine, and possibly a return to Williams, signaling that he may not be part of Sauber's long-term plan as it transitions into a works Audi team by 2026.
"I think that's a question for the team," he responded when asked about the unexpected reassignment of his engineer, Alex Chan, at the Miami race.
"It was quite a sudden change, but obviously trying to make the most of it," Bottas added. "I think it's part of the kind of reconstruction of the team. And yeah, so I don't do those decisions."
Sauber's team representative, Alessandro Alunni Bravi, defended the move.
"(CEO) Andreas Seidl has decided to initiate a transition to bring the current structure closer to the final structure that will be in place in 2026," he explained, as reported by the Japanese outlet as-web.jp.
Alunni Bravi also refuted claims that Bottas was blindsided by the "sudden change."
"We spoke to Valtteri after China," he clarified. "We had a meeting immediately after the race. Steven Petrik had already been with Valtteri in Pirelli's two-day test at Suzuka."
Petrik, previously a performance engineer at Ferrari, was criticized by Bottas in Miami for a late radio call concerning traffic.
"F*ck, that's too late man, I had no idea," Bottas expressed during the incident.
"Of course, it's up to us to integrate the new engineer and create a good working relationship, but also a personal relationship between Valtteri and his race engineer," Alunni Bravi stated.
"Obviously, when you make a decision, you always make a good decision or a bad decision. Time will tell whether it was a good one or not."
"But there was no connection between the change of race engineer and Nico (Hulkenberg)'s announcement. This was the first step we wanted to take in setting up a new organisation in the race team as soon as possible," he concluded.
