Audi and Valtteri Bottas playing ‘poker’ with Mick Schumacher as the ‘joker’ card

Mattia Binotto is reportedly playing a game of “poker” with Valtteri Bottas, the Audi F1 chief refusing to give into the Finn’s demands as he has a “very good joker” in Mick Schumacher.

Audi is the only team on the grid still to confirm their full line-up, the team undecided on Nico Hulkenberg’s 2025 team-mate.

Audi are in no rush to announce their second F1 2025 driver

Reports claim incumbent Bottas was leading the running to secure a fourth season with the team, but of late those talks have stalled.

The two parties cannot agree on the duration of the extension as Bottas wants a multi-year contract whereas Audi, who will continue as Sauber next season, are only offering him one year.

But according to RTL’s Felix Görner, that’s not the only topic Bottas and Binotto cannot find consensus on with the driver’s salary also a bone of contention.

When all is said and done it could be Binotto who has the winning hand as Audi are also in talks with former Haas driver and Mercedes reserve, Mick Schumacher.

The German is keen to return to the grid with Binotto recently revealing he is speaking to him but that he’s in no rush to make a decision.

“At the moment there is a poker game going on between Valtteri Bottas on the one hand and Sauber/Audi team boss Mattia Binotto on the other about the amount of the fee. There are still significant differences in the ideas,” Görner told sport.de .

“Binotto is now playing for time. He can do that because he has a very good joker in reserve in Mick Schumacher, whose strengths and weaknesses he knows very well from his time at the Ferrari Academy from 2019 to 2022.”

The F1 journalist believes Schumacher’s chances of pipping Bottas to the Audi seat are “real” but that he shouldn’t expect to hear anything in the coming weeks.

“Sauber/Audi will not be making a decision this week on the choice of driver for 2025 other than Nico Hulkenberg,” he said.

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But that’s a good thing for Schumacher as it gives him one more round in the World Endurance Championship, where he races with Alpine, to show Binotto and the Audi bosses what he can do.

“The last WEC race in Sakhir/Bahrain is still to come,” he said. “If he drives as well there as he did in Fuji with his podium finish, then that will be further arguments for him to show good results again.”

It’s fair to say Görner is rooting for Schumacher, not Bottas.

“Binotto has now gathered even more information about his factory, the development status of Audi and the driver issue and can now better evaluate what he wants to use the budget for in the next few years,” he said.

“An overpriced driver like Bottas, who certainly won’t be a winning driver, would actually be a waste of money. In that respect, it is very, very clever of Binotto to play for time.”

He added: “The German Formula 1 fans can continue to hope, Sauber/Audi has not yet made a decision.”

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