Formula 1 has always been a cutthroat sport all about innovation, improvement, and the never-ending pursuit of technological perfection. Stemming all the way back from 1950, with its roots even earlier than that, F1 has seen many teams and drivers come and go, all placing their mark in the high-stakes sport. With the future of F1 being so exciting for 2025, as well as the looming 2026 regulation change, there’s a lot to unpack about the future of Formula 1, as well as what it means for Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber.
The Stake F1 team has been known by many names throughout its prolonged existence in the space of F1. It was originally founded as Sauber F1 when Peter Sauber, a former Swiss amateur motor racing driver himself, started the team. The team competed as a midfielder throughout the 90s and 2000s until they were sold to BMW in 2005. BMW tried to run with the team and create a Formula 1 legacy of their own, but it was unfortunately not meant to be, and they ended up selling the team back to its original owner in 2011. In 2019, a deal was struck with the car company Alfa Romeo, in which Sauber F1 would change its name to Alfa Romeo F1 (though, Alfa never provided any technical help or parts for the car, making the whole deal essentially nothing more than a glorified title sponsor).
Nowadays, as of 2025, the team has taken on the popular streaming service Kick.com, as well as its associated online gambling company Stake, as its main two sponsors, becoming officially known as Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber. While the long name has garnered its fair share of criticism, most have decided to refer to it as some variation of “Stake F1” or “Kick Sauber”. Indeed, the bright neon green livery is unforgettable and instantly reminds anyone viewing the Kick streaming service. Kick itself has also garnered some publicity for introducing its brand new Kick rewind feature, in a so-far successful attempt to one-up its competitors in the space.
Up until the end of the 2024 season, Stake F1 had the reliable pairing of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu. Bottas, being a veteran of Mercedes while it was in its prime, was generally regarded as the more skilled of the two drivers, though in the 2024 season, Zhou did end up scoring more points. The explanation of why is a bit complex but was mostly due to the fact that the 2024 season was the roughest that the team has ever been through thus far, with a definitive last place in the standings. In Formula 1, each team has 2 drivers, and there are currently 10 teams competing, which makes for 20 drivers. To score points, however, one must finish in the top 10. Places 11 to 20 get no points and make no difference to the team’s placing in the standings. Because Kick Sauber’s car was unfortunately so poor, Bottas did get a higher average finishing position compared to his teammate, but ultimately failed to ever place in the points. Zhou on the other hand had a lower average position in comparison to his teammate but was in the right place at the right time in the 2024 Qatar Grand Prix, and took home a stray 8th place finish, scoring the only points for the team that season.
In August of 2022, the German car company Audi AG announced its buying out of Sauber F1 Team, as well as announcing that in 2026 it would be rebranded as Audi F1 Team. Audi also announced that they would produce their own Audi Formula 1 engines for the team. This marked the entry of the massive Volkswagen Group into Formula 1, something that the higher-ups of the sport have been trying to achieve for a while now. The VW Group was actually meant to enter the sport even earlier, with Porsche attempting to enter the sport as an engine manufacturer back in 2022. While Porsche did make progress with the idea, beginning negotiations with Red Bull Racing about an engine deal, it ultimately fell through due to Porsche demanding 51% ownership of the team, something that Red Bull was obviously not willing to accept.
Back to Audi, the acquisition hasn’t gone entirely smoothly, with the German giant first buying up 75% of Sauber F1, before deciding to buy up the rest of the team, achieving 100% private ownership. This ultimately proved too costly for Audi though, and they sold 33% of the team to the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar, though Audi still retains their 66% majority ownership of the team.
Throughout 2024, Audi has begun replacing many workers and staff of the team, transitioning it to their liking. This possibly helped create a turbulent atmosphere which caused Stake F1’s poor 2024 results, though results are expected to improve once the dust settles. The most notable hire so far has been former Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto serving as the new Chief Technical Officer. Binotto is no stranger to such a role, working high up in the technical department of Ferrari during its early 2000s glory days, but his legacy has somewhat been affected by his stint as Ferrari Team principal from 2019 to 2022, which was generally regarded as a poor job done, and especially a much inferior one in comparison to his successor Frédéric Vasseur (who remains Ferrari’s team principal to this day). Indeed, it seems to have possibly been quite a smart decision to relegate Binotto to handling all things technical, as it seems to be where he excels, hopefully bringing the team further up the field in 2025 and especially in 2026.
F1 is currently at the height of its popularity and currently seems to have no signs of slowing down. The drama-filled 2024 season saw Redbull’s Max Verstappen clinch the driver’s title, while McLaren ended up winning the constructor’s championship after its Abu Dhabi showdown with Ferrari. Indeed, both McLaren and Ferrari are looking quite a strong heading into the 2025 season, with Redbull seemingly trailing behind due to its unfortunate “brain drain”, with many of its most talented seniors being poached and lured away by rival teams. The biggest losses have been the legendary Adrian Newey, who has moved away to Aston Martin in order to try and revitalize the struggling team, as well as Jonathan Wheatley, who served as Red Bull’s sporting director, moving to become the team principal of Stake F1 Team under Audi’s ownership. What many predict as a result is a brutal McLaren-Ferrari title battle, with Redbull trailing behind, though in a solid third-place position.
Of course, the big unknown will be the 2026 season, seeing a complete redesign of the cars of F1. Huge emphasis will be placed on making the cars physically smaller and lighter, as well as placing importance on the hybrid powertrain. The current F1 cars use a hybrid system which gets about 1/3 of its power from the electric powertrain, and the rest of the 2/3 from the V6 internal combustion engine. The 2026 cars expand on the hybrid powertrain, aiming to achieve a 50/50 split between the power that the electric powertrain and combustion engine will produce. This has been marked as a slightly controversial action, with teams such as Red Bull protesting the idea of such heavy electric influence on the sport (especially as an all-electric racing league, Formula E, already exists). Indeed, the international authority governing Formula 1 (the FIA) has heard these concerns, but unfortunately, nothing drastic can be done about the powertrain in this late stage of determining the new regulations. However, efforts are being carried out in order to hopefully power the internal combustion engines of Formula 1 cars with eco-friendly biofuel (as opposed to the current petrol/gasoline). If these efforts prove to be fruitful, then we could see the possible return of the ICE providing the majority of the horsepower in these cars. Stefano Domenicali, the current CEO of Formula 1, has himself hinted at this exact possibility in an interview conducted last year.
2026 will also most likely see an 11th team added to the roster, with the automotive giant General Motors joining the sport under its Cadillac brand, with the assumed name of Cadillac F1 Team. Cadillac has already begun development of its 2026 entry, developing the car from the ground up. They’ve also committed to powering the cars with their own Cadillac engines by 2030, and have decided to strike a deal to use Ferrari engines until they can reach that point. Despite being a year away from their assumed entry, no driver lineup has been confirmed thus far, though there were rumors late last year about Cadillac approaching former F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo, offering him a drive. Ricciardo, who is now 35 years old, supposedly ended up rejecting the offer, as by then he would be in his late thirties, long past his prime. Since then, rumors have popped up here and there about a potential hiring of Valtteri Bottas, as well as a possible American pick. American drivers up for consideration have been rumored to be Jak Crawford and Colton Herta.
So where does Kick Sauber slot into all of this? Well, there’s the obvious transition to Audi, as well as the sudden driver swap that was conducted at the end of the 2024 season. Both Bottas and Guanyu were let go of their positions as drivers, making way for Nico Hulkenberg, and the recently confirmed Gabriel Bortoleto.
As far as Hulkenberg is concerned, Audi seemingly wanted an older, more experienced driver in order to provide good feedback in testing and a consistently reliable performance in both qualifying and races. Additionally, Audi has publicly stated that they wanted at least one German driver to represent them in the sport. Hulkenberg seems to have hit two birds with one stone, perfectly filling both roles and being a no-brainer pick for the new team.
In the second driver slot, it seemed that Audi wanted a more risky, younger driver. Indeed, a more experienced older driver and a young hotshot have been one of the most popular pairings of drivers among Formula 1 teams. Audi has picked the rising star Gabriel Bortoleto, which came as a complete surprise to most. Bortoleto had been part of McLaren’s Driver Development Programme since 2023, and it was expected that McLaren would most likely refuse to give the Formula 2 champion up so easily. However, McLaren already has two excellent young drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, who are both on long-term contracts for many years to come. This left McLaren in an unfortunate position where they had three expert drivers and only two seats to fill. As a result, McLaren agreed to release Bortoleto in order for him to fill the spot at Stake (soon to be Audi) F1 Team. Mattia Binotto has already gone on record stating that Stake F1 Team in fact did not have to pay McLaren any money for the release of Bortoleto, making for an excellent deal for a just-as-excellent driver.
Overall, the driver pairing for 2024 and beyond seems to be among the stronger ones in the sport, and the Stake F1 Team has a bright future when looking at the long term. Some suggest that they may possibly pay little attention to the 2025 car, instead focusing all resources on the all-new 2026 car, and they wouldn’t be the only ones. Williams has also confirmed that they will spend very little resources on the 2025 entry, focusing mainly on their 2026 entry. If Stake were to go down the same path, they might very well jump ahead in the standings, securing great results to come for the currently slightly unstable transitional F1 team. Indeed, the incredibly strong driver pairing would only accelerate their potential jump to the top, proving the seriousness and determination of Stake F1/Audi in their aspirations for achieving the most they can in the sport.
Article Published:
2025-02-22 13:12:26