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2025 australian grand prix/2025 F1 season/Gabriel Bortoleto/Sauber

Contact with team mate may have led to Bortoleto’s crash · F1 · RaceFans

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Sauber is looking into the possibility Gabriel Bortoleto’s race-ending crash last weekend was not caused by driver error.

Bortoleto crashed out of his first grand prix on lap 46, shortly after he changed to intermediate tyres as the rain returned. He originally believed he lost control of his car on a kerb and apologised to the team for his mistake.

However speaking in today’s FIA press conference Bortoleto said Sauber has not ruled out mechanical failure as a contributing factor. He said contact between him and Nico Hulkenberg on the first lap of the race may have weakened a suspension part and led to it failing later.

“We are still struggling to fully understand what happened there,” he said. “What is clear for us is that there was contact, I think with Nico.

“It was a racing incident – it was very small contact in turn three. We were side by side, and he had a small snap and touched my rear tyre. I didn’t even feel it at the moment, but when we re-watched the race, we saw it. So maybe that’s one of the possibilities.”

The team’s analysis has produced “nothing conclusive” so far, said Bortoleto. “The team is still studying and analysing it back at the factory to try to understand the real reason why it broke.

“We also need to determine if it influenced my spin the corner before or if that was purely my mistake from hitting the kerb.”

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Bortoleto also confirmed he experienced braking problems throughout much of the race. Aside from those difficulties he felt his first grand prix weekend was “very solid”.

“Quali was good, [free practice sessions] were very solid as well,” he said. “I improved a lot through the sessions. In quali I managed to do a decent lap in Q1 and then tried a bit too hard in Q2.

“But in the race it was very tricky. I’ve heard from some drivers that there won’t be many races more difficult than this one in your career – slicks to wet, then wet to slicks again, dry, then wet again.

“A lot of things happened, and we take learnings from that – how to behave in a race like this, when to push, when to not push, when to take risks. And obviously, through the race as well, we had some fights around, and it was just good to understand a bit how racing in Formula 1 is.”

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2025 australian grand prix/2025 F1 season/Gabriel Bortoleto/Sauber

Contact with team mate may have led to Bortoleto’s crash · F1 · RaceFans

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Sauber is looking into the possibility Gabriel Bortoleto’s race-ending crash last weekend was not caused by driver error.

Bortoleto crashed out of his first grand prix on lap 46, shortly after he changed to intermediate tyres as the rain returned. He originally believed he lost control of his car on a kerb and apologised to the team for his mistake.

However speaking in today’s FIA press conference Bortoleto said Sauber has not ruled out mechanical failure as a contributing factor. He said contact between him and Nico Hulkenberg on the first lap of the race may have weakened a suspension part and led to it failing later.

“We are still struggling to fully understand what happened there,” he said. “What is clear for us is that there was contact, I think with Nico.

“It was a racing incident – it was very small contact in turn three. We were side by side, and he had a small snap and touched my rear tyre. I didn’t even feel it at the moment, but when we re-watched the race, we saw it. So maybe that’s one of the possibilities.”

The team’s analysis has produced “nothing conclusive” so far, said Bortoleto. “The team is still studying and analysing it back at the factory to try to understand the real reason why it broke.

“We also need to determine if it influenced my spin the corner before or if that was purely my mistake from hitting the kerb.”

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Bortoleto also confirmed he experienced braking problems throughout much of the race. Aside from those difficulties he felt his first grand prix weekend was “very solid”.

“Quali was good, [free practice sessions] were very solid as well,” he said. “I improved a lot through the sessions. In quali I managed to do a decent lap in Q1 and then tried a bit too hard in Q2.

“But in the race it was very tricky. I’ve heard from some drivers that there won’t be many races more difficult than this one in your career – slicks to wet, then wet to slicks again, dry, then wet again.

“A lot of things happened, and we take learnings from that – how to behave in a race like this, when to push, when to not push, when to take risks. And obviously, through the race as well, we had some fights around, and it was just good to understand a bit how racing in Formula 1 is.”

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2025 australian grand prix/2025 F1 season/Nico Hulkenberg/Sauber

Sauber “identified a few problems” after Bahrain test

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Nico Hulkenberg expects a difficult start to his first race back at Sauber after driving the team’s new C45 chassis in pre-season testing.

Sauber finished at the bottom of the championship standings last year. Hulkenberg, who last drove for the team in 2013 and has returned to them from Haas, sayid they “need to wait and see” where they will stand in the pecking order this year.

“In Bahrain the car felt challenging to drive,” he told the official F1 channel. “I think we’ve identified a few problems, it wasn’t optimal there.

“Obviously we’ll give it our best shot here but I think it’s very hard to predict and to tell but I expect a challenging weekend.”

The team’s fastest lap time over three days of testing at the Bahrain International Circuit was the slowest in the field, though all 10 new cars for 2025 were covered by just 1.7 seconds. Sauber will become Audi’s works team next year and has made it clear it is prioritising work on its 2026 car.

Nonetheless Hulkenberg is upbeat about returning to racing in Melbourne this weekend. “Of course starting a new season things are always exciting and it’s always a good and happy feeling,” he said.

“I’m not the biggest fan of winter periods when there’s no racing and there’s too much downtime. You can get some crazy and funny ideas so I’m very happy that the season will start and all the noise around you stops and you focus on the racing and what’s important and what matters.”

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Sauber has also confirmed former Red Bull sporting director Jonathan Wheatley will take over as its new team principal next month. Hulkenberg has already spoken to Wheatley ahead of his arrival.

“Everyone is looking forward for him to get going,” said Hulkenberg. “I think he will be a good addition to have at the team.

“Obviously he comes with a huge wealth of experience and from one of the teams that has been pretty dominant in the last decade. I’m sure he can contribute a lot, short-term, mid-term and long-term. So I look forward to that.

“I’ve known him obviously from the paddock for many years but we’ve never worked closely together. I look forward to start that too.”

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2025 F1 season/Sauber

Sauber presents its livery for the 2025 F1 season · RaceFans

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Sauber has shown off its final livery before it rebrands as Audi’s Formula 1 team next year.

The Swiss-based squad presented their latest look at Formula 1’s official pre-season event in London. They are due to open an engineering hub in the United Kingdom later this year.

While Sauber have kept the same identity for one more year, they have changed both drivers for the upcoming season. Nico Hulkenberg has joined from Haas alongside Formula 2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto. Former drivers Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu are now in reserve roles at Mercedes and Ferrari respectively.

Pictures: 2025 Sauber F1 livery

This article will be updated

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Sauber sponsor told to close UK website over ad featuring pornstar · RaceFans

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A gambling website promoting one of Sauber’s title sponsors faces closure in the United Kingdom following an investigation by the Gambling Commission.

Stake, whose name appeared on Sauber’s cars last year at races where gambling adverts are legal, will close its UK website next month.

The commission announced Stake.uk.com, which is operated by TGP Europe Limited, will no longer be a licensed website from next month. It said the action had been taken in response to a video promoted on social media platform X featuring a pornographic actress, filmed in the UK, to which Stake’s logos had been added.

“The move follows the launch of a commission investigation into a widely viewed video displaying the Stake-branded logo, which was distributed on a social media platform and featured an adult actress outside Nottingham Trent University,” said the commission in a statement.

Zhou Guanyu, Sauber, Albert Park, Melbourne, 2024
Sauber ran without Stake logos in Australia

The commission fined TGP £316,250 in 2023 for failing to take sufficient action to promote responsible gambling and prevent money-laundering.

“TGP has previously been the subject of enforcement action and after a meeting with the commission have stated they will immediately stop accepting new registrations to the Stake.uk.com platform and remove redirection links from the main Stake website,” the commission stated. “Final shutdown of the Great Britain site will take place by 11 March 2025.”

The commission said it will contact the Premier League football team Everton, which is also sponsored by Stake, and other clubs with unlicensed sponsors, to warn them over “the risks of promoting unlawful gambling websites.”

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“Clubs will be asked to demonstrate that they have assurance that any steps to geo-block the sites are effective, recognising that some blocking can be easily bypassed by use of tools such as a virtual private network,” the commission added.

Stake's UK website
Stake’s UK website advises users of its imminent closure

“Clubs will be expected to carry out sufficient due diligence to assure the commission that consumers cannot transact with the sites from Great Britain by any means. The commission will also be taking steps to independently verify effective measures are in place.

“The letter will warn that club officers may be liable to prosecution and, if convicted, face a fine, imprisonment or both if they promote unlicensed gambling businesses that transact with consumers in Great Britain.”

Sauber’s team is based in Switzerland but the decision may have implications for its activities in the UK, where it also intends to open a new engineering hub later this year.

The team entered this season under the official name ‘Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber’, as it did last year. During 2024 it appeared without Stake branding at five rounds – in Australia, Spain, Belgium, Qatar and Abu Dhabi – due to local advertising restrictions. It is due to present its new livery for the 2025 season in London next week and participate in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in July.

Sauber will rebrand as Audi’s works Formula 1 entry next year. The team has been approached for comment.

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The Stake video, which appeared in December, prompted a complaint by the Coalition to End Gambling Ads to culture secretary Lisa Nandy last month. Gambling Commission data highlighted by CEGA claims as many as 1.3 million people in the UK could have a problem with gambling and a million more may “experience severe negative consequences from someone else’s gambling.”

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