“Unrest” at Sauber as Valtteri Bottas given new race engineer in “sudden change”

Valtteri Bottas appeared to be somewhat displeased by Sauber’s decision to give him a new race engineer for this weekend’s F1 Miami Grand Prix.

It was revealed on Thursday that Bottas will have a new race engineer for Miami.

The former Mercedes driver had worked with Alex Chan since joining the team at the start of 2022.

With it being a sprint weekend, nailing the car setup will be crucial for a strong weekend.

F1 presenter Will Buxton described there being “unrest” at Sauber as a result of the change.

Speaking in the FIA press conference, Bottas considered that the “sudden change” won’t make for an easy weekend.

“I think that’s more a question for the team. It was quite a sudden change,” Bottas said.

“It’s a Sprint weekend so working with a fresh guy will be not easy, but [we're] obviously trying to make the most out of it. He’s getting lots of support but, yeah, it’s quite a sudden change.”

It seems Audi are having an influence on proceedings at Sauber ahead of their 2026 take over, Bottas citing a “reconstruction”.

“I think it’s part of the reconstruction for the team,” he added. “There’s some people leaving, some people joining, and obviously many of those decisions are not in my hands.

“I think it says that things are changing. There’s change happening, obviously some changes are for long-term.

“I don’t know all the reasons behind every decision that is being made, but it just tells that change is happening, people are leaving, people are coming in – that’s about it.”

Bottas has yet to score a point in 2024 - but he’s on a strong run of form.

He’s out-qualified teammate Zhou Guanyu in the last nine races - only two other drivers on the grid are on a better run against their respective teammates.