Valtteri Bottas said Audi’s decision to sign Nico Hulkenberg came as somewhat of a surprise.
Audi will take over the Sauber team, which Bottas currently drives for, in 2026. It announced last week Hulkenberg will join the team next year.
“The timing is quite early and a little bit surprising,” said Bottas. “But the driver market is starting to move, obviously.
“It also kind of makes sense, he’s German and Audi’s made it pretty clear that they want a German driver. So it’s all good, let’s see what happens next.”
The news means either Bottas or his current team mate Zhou Guanyu – or both – will have to find another seat for next year. Bottas said he’s been “speaking to multiple teams, some talks have advanced more than the others, so we’ll see.”
Hulkenebrg admitted “it’s quite unusual for me that I know so early in the season where my future will be.” He told Sky he was pleased to “take that subject away so we can focus on the remainder of the season with Haas.”
“I obviously want to finish as successfully as possible,” he added. “There’s no presents to my future team, I’m still going to try and kick their butts.”
Sauber originally approached Hulkenberg during last season, he revealed. “There was an appetite and interest already last year and conversations, but it didn’t happen. And then this year again, obviously quite early in the season still, there was an appetite from them.
“But there was also appetite here from Haas, I was in parallel also talking with Ayao [Komatsu, team principal] and telling him that I think the future decision will happen sooner this year.
“So I gave them, not the opportunity, but I was talking here too because Haas is the team that gave me the opportunity to come back, last year. So I’m still very grateful for that but at the end obviously decided to move to Sauber.”
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