Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber announced on Wednesday that Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu won’t be returning to the team after three seasons with the Swiss team. F1’s worst-performing team is desperately attempting to right a sinking ship before becoming Audi’s factory team in 2026.

Sauber has signed Gabriel Bortoleto to partner Nico Hulkenberg in the 2025 Formula 1 season, the veteran and rookie effectively teaming up in the future Audi squad.Bortoleto had been courted by the Hinwil-based outfit for some time,

Sauber’s hire of Bortoleto means that a fifth of Formula 1’s grid in 2025 will be full-time rookies, as he joins Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Haas’ Ollie Bearman—who has contested three grands prix this year as a stand-in—and Alpine’s Jack Doohan on the list of newbies.