F1 star's contentious engineer change EXPLAINED

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F1 star's contentious engineer change EXPLAINED

The change came as a surprise to the driver

GPFans Staff

Saturday 11 May 2024 14:57

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Sauber have detailed the reasons for the change which saw Valtteri Bottas' race engineer replaced.

Alex Chan, who Bottas had worked with since the Finn joined the Swiss team in 2022, was replaced by ex-Ferrari performance engineer Steven Petrik.

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Bottas is not the only driver to experience an engineer change of late, with Charles Leclerc's Xavi Marcos being replaced by Bryan Bozzi.

The ex-Mercedes driver revealed that this change, which was made ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, was out of his hands, and now Sauber have explained the reasons behind the switch.

Valtteri Bottas won 10 races with Mercedes

Valterri Bottas has had a new race engineer since Miami

Sauber bank on 'more experience'

Sauber will be undergoing their own change in 2026, when they become the Audi works team as the German manufacturer takes full control.

Ahead of this, it seems that the team are looking to make changes to reflect their future ambitions.

"Andreas Seidl decided to anticipate certain decisions, and start implementing the changes that will bring the current structure towards the final structure that we will have in place in '26," Sauber Team Representative Alunni Bravi said.

"But we needed to start implementing those changes. This is not the final structure of the race team.

"As in Hinwil [Sauber's Swiss base] there is not the final structure of what we will be the Audi F1 team and the organisational chart.

“"We wanted to start, and Andreas Seidl decided to do it immediately. Because we think that we need to bring a bit more experience, but also to bring people that can have know-how from other teams, from top teams and help us to develop our processes, our analysis."

Petrik does bring a wealth of experience from a winning team in Ferrari, and has worked as Bottas' engineer on Pirelli test days.

"Of course, it's now up to us to integrate the new engineer, and also, of course, to create, to establish a good working relationship, but also personal relationship between Valtteri and race engineer," Bravi added.

Ferrari Charles Leclerc Miami Grand Prix Audi Valtteri Bottas Sauber