Hulkenberg to Sauber in 2025 confirmed the day after I put this video out, not massive surprise as I mentioned Audi were very interested in Hulk, but who will be alongside him?

4:03 skips the advert

In other words Alpine's downfall are making them look slightly less embarrassing

Genuinely feel bad for Zhou. He won't set the world alight by he's in no way an embarassment to F1. Isn't constantly binning cars or having wheel to wheel clashes, does a solid job, and has a really good attitude. And yet there are constantly comments about drivers who need to go and Zhou is frequently dropped in with the likes of Sargeant and Stroll. No way. It's too bad he was a learning rookie in 2022 when the car was halfway decent in the first part of the season. I would like to see him in such a reasonably competitive car for at least one season, now that he has plenty of experience, just to see what his ceiling really is.

It was when they had a 3 second pitstop in China and all the commentators were like, oooh, that’s a massive improvement. That says it all.

The day I see a car on the starting grid with an Audi logo is the day I will actually believe Audi is really in Formula One

Sauber never fails to fall to the back of the midfield every few years before either getting manufacturer support or rising to the top of the midfield.

Forgot to mention their naming issues. Announcing their team name and then realizing it violated Swiss Law further exemplifies the embarrassment that team is

Valtteri Bottas has been by far the most underrated driver this season

I see a few options for Zhou: 1. Audi keeps him because they don't want to pay Bottas the top money he's getting and Zhou keeps his current role as a solid, developing 2nd young driver that makes a lot of sense commercially as well. 2. Mercedes decides to give Kimi another year in F2, leaving a vacant seat at Williams and Zhou goes there. Williams not only needs Zhou's financial backing, they also need someone who is not constantly crashing their cars while keeping decent pace. 3. Alpine, because neither of their drivers want to stay and getting Zhou in is a safer option than Jack, not to mention that Zhou has the Renault Driver Academy connection. Personally, I would prefer (3), then (2) and then (1). But all of them are better than him losing his seat.

It is expected for Sauber to struggle during this transition period, they lost Fred Vasseur who clearly made a difference. With Audi's ambitions and investment, we wont see any payoff until 2026.

I think its because nobody really cares about sauber atm. They've been irrelevant for years and were just waiting for them to become audi

For those who think that Audi will come and turn everything around, do not forget that we are in a budget cap era. You can not throw money at the wall and develop multiple concepts. Look at Mercedes. They are falling down the grid. Audi is facing a uphill battle and success is by far not guaranteed.

Stake green colour scheme annoys my retina.

This also happened to Kimi and Giovinazzi back when they were Alfa Romeo. In 2021 they had a really great car but both of them (especially Giovi, who wasn't fast EXPECT THAT SEASON) were screwed so many times in that season. If I remember correctly, Giovinazzi lost like 20 points and he never got to show that he improved over the years

I have 0 confidence in Sauber, but the track record of Audi in Autosport is nothing to scoff at. They are serious in everything they do in the sport so I actually have high expectations. Obviously they will have a "getting used" year but I expect them battling top midfield in 2 or 3 seasons. I don't rule out a championship within 5 or 6 years.

Bottas is way better than ppl think

As a zhou fan, I feel so bad every time he pit. It’s like every time he and bottas pit, 3 is great, 4 is decent, 5 is reasonable and 10 is acceptable.

Bottas is so underrated, he’s a very good driver

I really hope that Audi keep both drivers as Bottas can put in some monster performances and Zhou is still a young and ever improving driver and they clearly get along making a string team.

Matt from P1 calling the dauber a “neon green dustbin” crakes me up

Mistakes bought to you by Stake 😂😂😂

20 years back to the past Sauber was miles away from being competitive before BMW took control. And within just 2 years they became the strongest team beside Ferrari and McLaren, making other big manufacturers names Renault and Toyota look like amateurs. Trust the project✋🏻

They didn't get the same level of criticism because they were consistently hitting the expectation, which was being a midfield team with occasional points finishes. They didn't carry hated drivers like Haas, and they didn't carry a name like Williams or meme drivers like Latifi and Sargeant. Their only meme was Kimi and he wasn't a negative meme, and Ericsson/Giovinazzi didn't attract as much hate, and occasionally finished on the points, which again, hits the expectation. But honestly, this is the story of Sauber, always under the radar of everyone except for the BMW years.

we just need to wait for 2026, this kick transition wont be permanent

Bottas isn't the best driver on the grid - but let's be honest, he has had some seriously quality drives. On his resume are a handful of races and qualifying sessions where he actually beat Lewis Hamilton. How many drivers can say that? As mentioned by Aldas, the car is rubbish how is it possible to attract any of the 6-7 drivers who are truly better than Bottas. Zhou is also quality too and has had some great moments too.

I feel so bad for both sauber drivers, they deserve a seat next year, but maybe at another team

Bottas may not have the pace of the very top, but stick him in a top car and he can get it done. Great teammate, keeps the car safe, adds a lot to the garage, has many accolades, dude is easily one of the overall most successful drivers that no one talks about

Your point about top 5 / bottom 5 is very illuminating: this was the inequity that the cost cap and aero development restrictions was supposed to address.

Your last two videos that focused on how a team have been doing in the season are fantastic! Your best yet, for reals. I was wanting someone to do a video explaining mercedes and their downfall and you nailed it. This video was spot on too, I learned a lot.

Alpine taking alot of stray Ls in this vid

Sauber have genuine pace to be at the front of that lower midfield pack and score some points at least. It's sad to see them do so bad.

Sauber is the ultimate go girl give us nothing team

i think generally, most people are not taking Kick too seriously this season. They are just doing to the numbers game. I bet there is alot going on in the back ground that the team cant share with the public. If they dont bring major updates this year, then we know they are in hard development for that audi car. IT sucks for the guys, but until Audi actually start acting like the owners of the team, then we can only expect average results from them.

I was very shocked that they didn’t mess up a pitstop in China

Wow, I didn't know the wheel nut problems were that extensive. Clearly, this 'solution' required a committee!

Sauber could have points on the board. But terrible pit stops have prevented this on the few occassions Zhou and Valterri were fighting in P9/P10. Both their drivers could have points by now.

I'm glad someone actually mentioned the fact that both of their drivers have been really unlucky in terms of reliability for the past 2 seasons. Most people talking about sauber seem to just say zhou is bad and that's it, when in fact i think he is a solid driver who doesn't make many mistakes and can actually stick with his teammate in terms of pace quite often. I hope he can find seat somewhere else, would be a shame to see him go

I feel for the drivers because they're fighting for seats with hands tied behind their backs. The amount of races they were in the fight for points and the team blundered it away and now they have no points and look incompetent.

So with Hulkenberg signing for Audi then I'm guessing Sainz will be his partner. Of course if Sainz signs for Red Bull then I'm guessing one of the Alpine drivers or Albon will take that seat

It’s all about pressure isn’t it. Sauber has been backmarkers to the occasional midfield car for yonks at this point. They don’t have the highs of Williams and Renault/Alpine in the past, and even teams like RB and Haas are showing (Some) development. I think everyone gives them the side eye because Sauber will be gone soon and the titan of Audi shall take over so we’re just getting second hand embarrassment from the rebrand and lack of pace as per. This is coming from someone who is a fan of Bottas, Zhou, and Andreas Seidl

what song plays in background?

does anyone know the background song in the video? thanks

It's not really so crazy that sainz goes to sauber if they wrangle a decent car and pit hardware for 2025 as they still have that ferrari engine that year who's characteristics he would be used to. Fred was there until recently so I would imagine there's crossover of the way the team has been set up in some of the slower changing elements Thinking of them back as alfa, a kind of toro rosso to ferrari. If red bull were bringing Norris in, it wouldn't be crazy to have 2023 P2, race winning Perez making room by going down into an RB seat.

its a worrying thing in 2024 half of the teams instead of going forward go backwards compared to the top...with the same regs

I feel like the reason Sauber's mess isn't as talked about is because other teams are arguably comparably bigger messes versus expectations, with Mercedes getting things wrong for the 3rd year in a row when they were once title winners and Alpine being Alpine when they're a works team. Audi has to approach this with the realization that turning this team around is going to take maybe half a decade at least, maybe more. That or maybe this might force Audi to expedite the transition even more so that they can make the operational changes earlier. At this rate, they're not going to invite any top tier drivers. Maybe that might be what will play into either Bottas or Zhou staying that not many drivers as good as both of them would want to drive for an operationally messy team.

The term midfield is really poorly used. More accurate would be P1-P5: front runner P6-P15: midfield P16-P20: backmarker

And before they were Mercedes and Red Bull they were BAR/Brawn and Stewart/Jaguar Racing. What is currently VCARB was Minardi. All minnow teams at their time. Im not sure your reasoning is sound. Audi are clearly restructuing it all ready for 2026, and they won't expect to be instantly at the front.

Man, it's great Liberty Media stopped Andretti from diluting the F1 brand and adding nothing to Formula 1...

i had such high hopes last year; I'm a Williams fan, but i root for this team as well--the drivers deserve a better car.

Crazy that this is the same team that Kimi Raikonnen raced for before the rebrand

This has become my favorite F1 news / opinion / insight channel. Kudos to you Aldas.

Feel like audi needs to get more involved in sauber operation much earlier than expected if they want to race in or near the front of the grid before their debut in 2026.

Tbh I think alpine will soon overtake the other constructors . Purely because of the fact that they are already rolling out upgrades which seem to be working. Plus they are still a works team hence they have much more resources available

Audi’s line up will be the Hulk and Zhou. Not that Zhou is the best free agent, but because China buys more Audis than all of Europe combined. You don’t need to win races when 2 in 5 Audis are sold in China.

If Sainz goes there it's a MASSIVE risk if Audi aren't competitive straight out of the gate

too bad for all those hoping for the Nico/Valtteri pairing at Audi are now sad since Sauber is giving both Valtteri and Zhou the boot at the end of the season. And please don't pair Nico with Ocon unless you actively want to sit there and watch him crash his own teammate a lot.

I mean tbh people are talking about sauber on broadcasts and post race but there has also been more headline grabbing drama these past 5 races, horner drama, lewis and sainz contracts, alonso penalties, stroll being stroll, bearmans debut and now newey rumors potentially being real. I think if there wasnt so much off track bullshit people would be focusing on sauber a lot more

In terms of development time/tokens or however it was limited and counted, it makes perfect sense to "suck" untill becoming Audi. There will be no shortage of funds available from audi and due to cost cap you can now get more spent on developement by being the worst team (not in pace, but in results that is). You make an extreme car, and spend the time ironing out it's troubles. Front wing end plates coming off just by opponents looking at them in anger? Wheel nuts turing out to be complete disaster? It's not a bad car, but it yields bad results, and thus makes kinda sense in long run at this stage.

That’s what they get for keeping Andretti out of the sport. And it does come down to the teams just as much at the organizers.

They're doing exactly as planned, milking the spot on the grid for as much money as possible before becoming Audi and making an actual effort with the rule changes.

4:40 casually omitting silverstone 22

I think Slow, unless he brings a massive sponsor packet like some of the other essentially pay drivers currently on the grid (by which I mean: they bring in more than their salaries, and would NOT have their seat if they didn't...we all--I think--know who they are. Then there's Stroll) and it doesn't appear that's the case, is likely to be the one to lose this seat and not get another one (aka: I agree, Aldas.) The Bleached Mullet (WHY, Valtteri?) I think stays as he's a proven driver commodity, well liked in the paddock, easy to work with (i.e. he'll do as told, sans fuss) and will be happy to play 2nd seat to Carlos. BTW we all knew CS would land on his feet: he has title winning talent and-as important-mentality (maybe in the DNA?) but how quickly things can go from 'what a raw deal to get unfairly sacked by Ferrari in a scenario NOBODY saw coming' to 'open the vault, it's time for an--almost--Max-style payday long-term contract, and lead an exciting new manufacturer's program'.' A situation of "F me? Nope. F YOU!' and given the circumstances and what a great talent and guy he is I couldn't be more pleased for him. But, as Aldas points out, there's going to have to be MAJOR changes at literally every level if Audi is to hit the ground running with this Keystone Cops outfit. And with the sort of investment and stakes on the line--both monetarily, and brand-image wise--those changes WILL be made. They absolutely cannot and will not abide the sort of amateur-hour screw ups that define Sauber/Stake/Whoever's '24 season to date.

This exactly this. I don’t get the hype. Seeing the team struggle so much and having so much expectations does not work at all.

0:40 The characterization of Sauber as "extremely incompetent" is extremely incompetent. Nothing or nobody on the grid in F1 can be described as extremely incompetent, not even Lance Stroll.

How long could you talk about surfshark????

“More like alpine than mercedes” both are on the exact same level 😂😂

"...not only can were the team not able to revert back to last years parts, because... ...the old parts are now not compatible with the brand new front suspension" then MAKE it compatible. That's absolutely not an excuse they can make out to be an impassible obstacle if it means they're having pit-stops in the double digits EVERY RACE. THEY ALREADY HAVE A BETTER WHEEL NUT DESIGN. ADAPTING IT TO THE NEW CAR SHOULD BE PRIORITY NUMBER ONE

Who is here after the Hulk to Sauber transfer announcement :') poor Zhou

Bottass is showing he deserves the seat

Audi knows racing. They will fix it. Signing Nico is promising.

Sauber imo never was a good team in this ground floor generation of race cars. The only thing they did right was nailing the weight in the '22 season while everyone else was overweight. If I recall correctly, they were the only team who got it right considering weight. And less weight gives you better lap time. But it seems in everything else they lacked and didn't evolve or didn't make more of it. With Audi... We will see. With the new budget cap era you need to be on the right path from the start in 2026. If your concept is lacking, it is very hard to overcome and get past it within the budget cap as we can see with Mercedes. They can't recover from their failed concept because they are always at the backfoot and it seems that they won't get back to fighting at the front for the rest of this ground floor generation.

If Audi are as serious as they say are, they need to look at what happened when Mercedes took over Brawn, massively under prepared and thought they could walk in, take over a good car and win straight away. Instead it took years of investing and consistent development to become what they eventually became.

Zhou is going to be stiffed unfortunately for him, at least VB has a bit of credit in the bank from his Merc days so they might keep him on

I think we should bear in mind that Audi have had barely anytime to affect the 2024 Sauber car and it's design concept and no control over their current engine. The pitstops are fucking ridiculous though.

Pointless... Now there's a description that applies to the three trailers at the moment.

Everybody seems to think, that Audi is gonna be winners from the get-go. Perhaps, but rather unlikely. I'm so old I remember Toyota's adventure...

Great video keep it up you're doing amazing things 😁💯

With all due respect, I think it’s unrealistic to expect Sauber to perform as Audi is supposed to perform, when Audi is not yet handling the team.

I say this is all about them Start bottom and going up getting it right using this your to rebuild everything

Main difference between Alpine and Audi is Germany.

Why would sainz go to audi when they have so many problems as a company standpoint

Reality: The 2024 season is going to be super competitive so teams have to nail everything. Sauber: Oh shit, here hold my beer. No really! We're drinking over here, please take the booze away from us! Send help!

i feel bad for bottas

I just feel that... Sauber has always been a team that EXISTS you know? The first time i even noticed then was back in Kubica/BMW days. They're always there as a second fiddle. And that leaves me mad. They wont accept andretti but a team which just EXISTS, with almost no recofnition, and always being partnered or bought by someone who just gives uo years after... Really. I see less sense in them compared to Racing Bulls, and I also dont see the point in them. I hope audi shifts that but... They cant get even a pit stop correctly. I am truly concerned

So Williams "didnt even have a spare chassis" but you didnt say that about the much bigger, OEM of Alpine?? Why is that?!

Look how McLaren improved when seidl left and zak brown said he should of made certain decisions alot sooner, I think he is a liability

3min pitstop is a win for Sauber, but that’ll be an absolutely shit pitstop for other teams

If Sainz goes to Mercedes, Audi won’t want him anymore (it’s just how they operate) . And considering Mercedes is looking to put Kimi.A in their car as soon as he’s ready, Sainz would need to look for a seat after 2026.

I swear to God Sauber is the most mid of all mid teams. When they're on their own they have their mid moments but too many low moments.

Lance Stroll really has made the season a little bit better. Watching 11 drivers go all out for the spot he should be in is the best part of the season.

Hülkenberg is basically officially signed They wanted to sign him for 24 but his contract with haas had no exit clause since he was in a bad negotiation position as u might remember he wasn’t driving full time for 3 seasons So he will 100% join Audi except Mercedes will snatch him up I think both will be gone with bottas maybe joining Williams ? He was there before and James and VB know each other Albon has a contract no way he is leaving especially with that start 😂

Sucks, beacuase as you said. Probably 90% of the poor performances the drivers have had is the team itself. hate to see that happen to two good drivers.

Never re-invent the wheel(nut).

Were too busy trying to get Lance Stroll out of F1

I don't think surfshark will save sauber

I don't think Audi think they are going to come in and just challenge Red Bull soon. The only people who think that are delusional fans (or some people who just repeat it to fit the narrative). Sure they will expect to be part of that current top 5 soon and have the ambitions to win. But you have to be silly to think it is a done deal at all just because it is Audi. They are taking over Sauber. Some people say o but they will bring some great engine and that will somehow take them to the higher spots. The current car is using a very good engine. What they are going to bring is the investment, draw of the name to improve facilities and get drivers and other personnel to join and probably the expertise to fix the operational problems.

I think this is a good take, but I know exactly why drivers of such high level are being linked with Audi. Audi’s racing pedigree compared to other German manufacturers is quite high, I’d safe more than Mercedes back when they first joined and won all the world championships. Audi joining f1 is a big deal, and I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that when we hit 2026, they will hit the ground running, and will surprise a lot of people

It's a career suicide working for sauber, bottas should try and get strolls seat

i hope zhou and bottas stay on the team though