Schumacher at Audi for 2026? ‘Too early to talk about drivers’
Audi confirmed last week that Sauber - currently running under the Alfa Romeo name - would become their works team in 2026.
The news came as no surprise after Audi announced their plans to become an F1 engine supplier earlier this year.
With Audi likely wanting a German driver in 2026, Mick Schumacher would potentially be an option.
Schumacher is currently driving for Haas, but his immediate future is under threat, with Nico Hulkenberg rumoured to be the favourite to partner Kevin Magnussen for F1 2023.
Speaking at last weekend’s F1 Mexico City Grand Prix, Vasseur admitted it was too soon to be discussing Audi’s potential driver line-up.
“As you said, it’s a bit ambitious to speak about drivers for 2026,” he explained.
“We have the academy, we are trying to develop young ones and so but it will be in the middle because if you are speaking about young kids often in go-kart today, it will be more for 2030 or 2032.
“For sure, we have Valtteri [Bottas] on board, we have Zhou [Guanyu] on board , we have Theo [Pourchaire] in the pipeline. But we will have time to discuss about this and I’m not sure that you have so many drivers on the grid with contract after 2026.”
In terms of team name, the Sauber outfit will no longer be known as Alfa Romeo after 2023 with their title sponsorship coming to an end.
With two more years without Audi in 2024 and 2025, Vasseur admitted they might have a new title sponsor in the intervening years.
“You have to disassociate the name of the team, which could be the title sponsor, and the name of the company,” he added.
“The name of the company will stay Sauber. The name of the chassis will stay Sauber, but we could have a title sponsor coming in.”
