Audi are still undecided on who will team up with 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Nico Hulkenberg at Sauber for the F1 2025 campaign.

It’s ult✃imately Mattia Binotto’s decision, with the former Ferrari boss joining A🌊udi in August.

Audꦿi could opt for experience or youth – but which route should they go down?

“Driving better than what I did at Mercedes”

On the surface, dropping Valtteri Bottas would be a ✨harsh decision.

Bottas has comfortably outperformed teammate Zhou Guanyu🐻 this year, leading 17-1 in the qualifying head-to-head.

While Bottas sits bottom of✤ the F1 drivers’ championship, behind Zhou on countback (Zhou finished P11 in Bahrain), a lack of performance cannot be justification for dropping the Finn. 

Bottas would have scored points on potentially two occasions had Sauber’s pit stop woes n꧟𓂃ot ruined their early-season form.

Bottas himself f꧒eels he’s still performing💞 at the top of his game. 

Speaking in Singapore, Bottas said: “I feel like, yes, especially in qualifying this year. I haven't fe♐lt any signs of being worse. If anything, you keep getting better with experience.

“You gain more consistency, more confidence. You can solve different issues in a different way. You can adapt to the car 🏅the more time you spend in the sport.

“I feel actually ﷽I'm driving better than what I did at Mercedes, but obviously it's not tꦑhat visible.”

In raw pace terms, there’s no doubt that Bottas warrants a place on the F1 grid, and alongs﷽ide Hulkenberg, Sauber would have an ex♛tremely quick, proven driver pairing.

However, given that Sauber are likely to be at the back again in 2025, would it not be a better time to get a youngster up to speed ahead of 𒁏the arrival of Audi in 12 months’ time?

At 35, Bottas is obviously not the future, and while dependable, the performances of🀅 Oliver Bearman and Franco Colapinto surely prove that opting for a hotshot could be the way to go for the German manufacturer.

Opting for youth

Colapinto’s run of outstanding performances for Williams has pot🧔entially shifted the narrative about putting rookies – or less experienced drivers – into F1. 

The A💫rge♎ntine has been a close match for the highly-rated Alex Albon in his three F1 outings, proving to be a significant upgrade on Logan Sargeant.

Williams boss James Vowles has made it c🍌lear he’d be open to let🌃ting Colapinto join Sauber.

Given Colapinto’s - and Bearman’s - impressive showings this year, perhaps it will tempt♎ Binotto and Audi to go for another Formu൲la 2 driver.

Brazilian driver Gabriel Bortoleto has been heavily linked with a ꦜpromotion to F1 with Sauber. Bortoleto, who is managed by Fernando Alonso’s ‘A14’, sits top of the F2 standings. 

F1 has not had a Brazilian on the grid since 2017 with Felipeꦍ Massa, which would allow Audi to tap into that market again. 

As 2025 is likely to be a write-off for Sauber as they wai🍸t for Audi’s full involvement, it would give a less experienced driver time to grow and learn away from the spotlight.

The outside option

Time is running out f💞or Mick Schumacher to save his F1 career. The German was overlooked by Alpine as they chose Jack Doohan as Esteban Ocon’s replacement.

Schumacher has performed well during his🔯 stint in the World Endurance Championship for Alpine - but his goal is to return to F1.

“Whatever happens for the future, will be decided at some point still this year, hopefully,” 🐬he told Autosport.

“Aꦉs soon as I know what I will be doing, I will for sure ๊put a press release out there and let you all know.

“But definitely the🔯 hope is for Fo🅺rmula 1, because that is what I dreamt of since I was a little boy, but it definitely feels great to be in WEC.”

It’s easy to forget that Schumacher outperformed Kevin Magnussen in the second half of 2022 before being🐷 replaced by Hulkenberg. 🌊;

An unlikely option, buꦿt a second chance for Schumacher would be intriguing to see how he would fa🍰re outside of the Haas environment.