Audi F1 contender now declares ’50 per cent or more’ chance of taking 2025 seat

Following the 2025 signing of Nico Hulkenberg, if they want to stay at Sauber, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu are now battling for one seat.

Zhou Guanyu believes he has a better than 50 per cent chance of securing a Formula 1 race seat for next season, despite only two viable options for the Chinese driver in Sauber and Alpine.

Following Sauber’s announcement back in April that Nico Hulkenberg would join the team next season, Zhou and his current team-mate Valtteri Bottas have been aware for months that one of them is out at the end of the season.

Zhou Guanyu: I want to stay in this championship

However, which of the two will not have their contract renewed is anyone’s guess, and F1’s rumour mill has been guessing.

In the midst of a season in which neither Sauber driver has scored a single point, leaving the team locked to the bottom of the standings, 10-time Grand Prix winner Bottas is said to be the favourite to continue with the team.

He revealed at the Hungarian Grand Prix that staying on at Sauber is an “option” but that he didn’t yet have a “clear answer” as to what the future holds.

But with Sauber bringing in former Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto as the team’s new Chief Operating and Chief Technical Officer, the odds may have swung in Zhou’s favour.

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Not only does the Chinese driver know Binotto from the Ferrari driver academy, but having joined Formula 1 in 2022 when Binotto was the Scuderia’s team boss, the Italian may have had a say in Zhou’s promotion from F2 to the Alfa Romeo team.

Zhou reckons he has a better than 50 per cent chance of staying on the Formula 1 grid.

“For the future or for next year, it’s definitely better. I’ve known him for quite a while now, being involved with Ferrari’s academy for several years,” Zhou told The Race.

“I want to stay in this championship. That’s what I want to do.

“But in terms of what I do, if I become a third driver, I haven’t thought about it.

“My mindset is on getting a seat because there’s still, I would say, a chance of 50 per cent or more that I get a seat.”

His options though, are now limited to Sauber or Alpine, where he was also a junior and test driver.

He believes now that Carlos Sainz has made his decision to join, there will be a quick turnaround for the rest of the grid.

“I want to stay here, that’s very clear,” Zhou told the media including PlanetF1.com before the summer break. “But of course we’re talking to different options, as well as with Sauber. Nothing’s been decided.

“It’s very easy to say we are all waiting for Carlos to decide at the end of the day, but hopefully he can make his decision sooner and then I think that will turn around a lot the driver market.

“But before that, I think the guys who still haven’t signed [can’t] really give any clear answer. We’re talking and there’s options, but we need to wait and see.”

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