Who will get the Kick Sauber seat for the 2025 season?
Ianna Martinez Barrientos, Contributor
As rumours swirl around the paddock and the motorsport tabloids, four drivers are left wondering if they will have a seat for the 2025 season. Despite the Visa Cash App Racing Bull’s team not having an official announcement for their second driver, it is pretty much known that Liam Lawson will be getting this seat. Thus, leaving only one open seat for the upcoming season, the Kick Sauber seat. Attaining this seat is important because in 2026, Audi will be buying Kick Sauber, meaning whoever gets it has a good chance of scoring points. But which current driver deserves this final seat?
First, let’s begin with Franco Colapinto. After joining mid-season to replace Logan Sargent, Colapinto left viewers astonished as he was able to place 12th in his first Formula 1 Grand Prix, ultimately surpassing eight other drivers. Yet, the viewer’s astonishment grew with each race, as he placed 8th in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and 11th, in what is notoriously known as one of the hardest races on the calendar, the Singapore Grand Prix. After a total of three races, Colapinto has managed to score four points, landing him in 19th place out of the 23 drivers this season. In comparison to his predecessor, Colapinto has managed to score more points in these three races than Sargent has been able to in his entire Formula 1 career.
Secondly, we have a current Kick Sauber driver, Valtteri Bottas. Once starting at the front of the grid with Mercedes, Bottas has now found himself at the back struggling to even score points. However, this issue does not necessarily mean that he is not a worthy competitor for this seat, as his past stats show that he is a consistent driver. For example, out of 240 Grand Prix, he stood on the podium for 67 of them and collected a total of 1797 points. Thus, if he is put in a competitive car, Bottas has a very good track record and is likely to be on future podiums.
The other current Kick Sauber driver who is out of contract at the end of this season is Zhou Guanyu. Debuting in 2022, Zhou is the first Chinese driver in Formula 1— a huge accomplishment. After the 62nd Grand Prix, he collected a total of 12 points but did not stand on the podium.
The last contender for the Kick Sauber seat is the current Haas Driver, Kevin Magnussen. With 181 races, Magnussen has collected a total of 192 points and has stood on the podium once. One of his highest accomplishments in Formula 1 was during his rookie year as he managed to place second in the season-opening 2014 Australian Grand Prix.
In my opinion, out of all four possible contenders listed above, there are two that appear to be the most likely and the most liked by fans to get the Kick Sauber seat: Colapinto and Bottas. However, there are also drivers outside of Formula 1 to consider for this seat like Mick Schumacher and Gabriel Bortoleto. These potential options will further push Colapinto and Bottas to do their best in the last few races of this season. Now it’s all up to Kick Sauber to decide who will be in their seat!
Photo Credit: Formula 1
