Valtteri Bottas, a Finnish driver for Sauber, had an unexpected change in his Formula 1 race engineer before the Miami Grand Prix. Sauber team representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi revealed that Audi played a role in this sudden swap. Prior to the race, it was announced that Steven Petrik, a former performance engineer from Ferrari, would replace Alex Chan as Bottas’ radio communication contact. This decision was not made by Bottas himself, and he expressed surprise at the change. The impact of this alteration was evident in Miami, as Bottas received a three-place grid penalty for impeding another driver during the Sprint qualifying.
Alunni Bravi confirmed that Sauber CEO Andreas Seidl was responsible for the restructuring, which is part of the team’s transition to Audi. The changes implemented are not the final structure of the race team, but rather a step towards future organization. The goal is to bring in individuals with experience and knowledge from top teams to assist in process development and analysis. Petrik had already been working with Bottas since the Pirelli test after the Chinese GP, and the driver was informed of the decision in Shanghai.
The timing of the revelation about the race engineer change was not related to Sauber’s announcement about signing Nico Hulkenberg from Haas for the next season. According to Alunni Bravi, it was simply one of the first steps in implementing a new organization within the race team as quickly as possible. The ultimate success of this decision will only be determined over time.
