“From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea”– Carlos Sainz will face this situation next season. At present, Ferrari stands at the third position on the Constructors’ table with 345 points. Meanwhile, his future team, Williams, is at the second-last spot on the same Constructors’ Standings with only 4 points. So, Sainz will jump from a top-performing team to one of the low-ranking ones. And this transition is not new to Formula 1 history since Valtteri Bottas pulled off a similar move.

Bottas joined the Silver Arrows in 2017 by replacing Nico Rosberg. Since then, he has become a runner-up in the Championship twice. And when the Finn debuted for Alfa Romeo (currently called Kick Sauber), his team scored only 55 points. In his second season with the Swiss outfit, Alfa Romeo’s scores dipped further as they came second-last in the Championship with just 16 points.

As Carlos Sainz awaits his move to Williams, he knows his chances to race for victory will come down from 2025 onwards. At one point, speaking on the tragic truth, the Spaniard had said, “I’m focusing on enjoying the opportunities that I have this year to fight for podiums that I might not have next year.”

But Valtteri Bottas might have some advice for the 29-year-old. He told the Pitlane Life Lessons host, “This sport obviously is always more fun when you’re doing good results but at the same time, it’s a job of many drivers, who can’t most often finish in the points, you still need to go to go to make most out of it.”

Now, Valtteri Bottas, himself, wants to join a new team soon—but what are his chances?

Valtteri Bottas has revealed his chances of racing for Audi

Audi’s ex-boss, Andreas Seidl, had hinted that his team had eyes on Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou for possibly hiring them. Bottas and Zhou are currently racing for Sauber, and in 2026, Audi will take over their team to make its F1 debut. There is one seat up for grabs at Audi for the ’26 season. Thus, both Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou are viable options.

However, Mattia Binotto has led Audi’s F1 operations by now. Given the change in leadership, what are the chances that Mattia will hire Valtteri Bottas? Replying to this the Finn said, “It’s a bit of a reset again [in the contract talks]. It’s not a secret that when there’s a new leadership, it will always take a bit of time, first of all.”

Thus, Bottas has made it clear that he holds no hope of securing that Audi deal anytime soon. But do you think he can secure that seat at all?