McLaren is ready to find a “solution” with Sauber if the team offers McLaren junior Gabriel Bortoleto a spot on the 2025 F1 grid.
Sauber is the only team not part of Red Bull that hasn’t confirmed its full lineup for next season, even though they were one of the first to start the process by signing Nico Hulkenberg in April.
McLaren won’t prevent Gabriel Bortoleto from joining Sauber if he gets the chance. Six months later, he is still waiting to find out who his new teammate will be.
It was believed that Valtteri Bottas was the frontrunner, but his discussions reportedly hit a snag over salary and contract length, bringing Mick Schumacher into the mix. Now, it’s also said that Bortoleto and Williams’ junior Franco Colapinto are still in the conversation.
Colapinto has already shown his skills in F1, scoring points in two of his four starts for Williams, while Bortoleto is on track to win back-to-back titles. He won the 2023 Formula 3 title and is currently in first place in the Formula 2 standings with two rounds left.
McLaren CEO Zak Brown says the team won’t stand in the way of the 20-year-old if Sauber offers him a race seat.
“He’s a great racing driver,” Brown told the media in Austin. “Right now, our priority is to help him win the Formula 2 championship. So that’s what we’re very much focused on.
“We don’t have an open seat. We’re very happy, obviously, with our two Grand Prix drivers, and we would never want to hold a racing driver back in his career. So we’ll kind of see how things play out.
“But we are focused on winning the championship and on not holding him back if we can’t provide him with an opportunity in Formula 1, which looks unlikely at this time.”
While McLaren team boss Andrea Stella is open to finding a “solution” with Sauber, he admits he wants to keep Bortoleto in some way.
“If [Mattia] Binotto came to me, when you have such a talent, definitely you’re not going to stop him having a chance in Formula 1,” he said.
“At the same time, we would be definitely interested in finding a way to keep him in the McLaren family because I think he is a talent that in the future could be important for McLaren.
“We are safe for the long term with our two drivers. We couldn’t be any happier. But definitely we would like to keep him in the McLaren family. But I’m sure we could find a solution.”
The 20-year-old and other candidates for the Sauber seat might have to wait a bit longer, possibly until the end of the season, for the team’s decision, as Binotto has made it clear he’s not in a hurry to name Hulkenberg’s 2025 teammate.
“We have the luxury of not being in a hurry, all the other teams having decided on their line-up,” said the Italian.
