Alex Palou Denies Sauber 2025 Link Amid Audi Takeover

Media speculated that Sauber may line up Alex Palou to partner with Nico Hulkenberg for 2025 before Audi’s full F1 entry in 2026. This 27-year-old Spaniard has already enjoyed a brilliant single-seater career in the United States of America, apart from winning the recipe for IndyCar titles and cups for the first time in 2021 and defending those titles in 2022, and again strongly leading all the competitors for the cup of 2024. He recently got blamed for being linked with Audi, through which he squashed the rumors and called it a useless and false statement against him.

Alex Palou’s Denial of Audi Connection

Palou, however, has dismissed these rumors. In an interview with IndyStar, he firmly stated,

It’s all fake. I know you cannot take my word, but I promise. It’s all fake. I’ve had no contacts with Audi. Zero.

 Audi has recently reorganized the management of Sauber to complete the takeover in 2026. Ex-Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto has been hired as the new Chief Operating and Chief Technical Officer while Andreas Seidl and Chairman Oliver Hoffmann have left the organization. Also, Jonathan Wheatley, who is today Sporting Director of Red Bull Racing, will become Sauber Team Principal in 2025 to redefine the team’s structure.

Driver Market Dynamics

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As it stands, Sauber has two definitive drivers in Bottas and Guanyu Zhou having contracts but those expire at the end of the current season, and it is unclear whether Seidl wants to keep these two drivers. Bottas at least hopes that the arrival of Binotto will go a long way to ensure that he retains his seat. Taylor has already locked in two of his former Audi targets in Sainz and Ocon to Williams and Haas, respectively, while Red Bull Advisor Helmut Marko said that he would never let Liam Lawson go to a rival team.

Sauber’s choices are the F1 drivers such as Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargeant, or it can search for employees outside the F1. One figure that has cropped up in the Italian source is Gabriel Bortoleto who, apart from driving for the Formula 2 title, is part of McLaren Drivers’ Development.

Alex Palou started as a McLaren reserve and has had a love-hate relationship with the F1 fraternity. However, he crashed into legal problems with McLaren due to the non-fulfillment of a contract but his spectacular victories and successes in IndyCar racing are famous.