Audi and Valtteri Bottas play “Poker” with Mick Schumacher as the “Joker” card

Mattia Binotto is reportedly playing a game of “poker” with Valtteri Bottas, the Audi F1 boss, who is refusing to give in to the Finn’s demands as he has a “very good joker” in Mick Schumacher.

Audi is the only team on the grid that has yet to confirm its full line-up, with the team still undecided on Nico Hulkenberg’s teammate for 2025.

Audi is in no hurry to announce its second F1 2025 driver

Incumbent Bottas had reportedly been leading the race for a fourth season with the team, but recently those talks have stalled.

The two parties cannot agree on the length of the extension as Bottas wants a multi-year contract while Audi, which will continue as Sauber next season, is only offering him one year.

But according to Felix Görner from RTL, this is not the only issue on which Bottas and Binotto cannot find a consensus; the driver’s salary is also a bone of contention.

Ultimately, Binotto could be the winner as Audi is also in talks with former Haas driver and Mercedes replacement Mick Schumacher.

The German is keen to get back to racing as Binotto recently revealed he is talking to him but is in no rush to make a decision.

“At the moment there is a poker game going on between Valtteri Bottas on the one hand and Sauber/Audi team boss Mattia Binotto on the other about the amount of the fee. There are still significant differences in ideas,” Görner told sport.de.

“Binotto is now playing for time. He succeeds because he has a very good joker in reserve in Mick Schumacher, whose strengths and weaknesses he knows very well from his time at the Ferrari Academy from 2019 to 2022.”

The F1 journalist believes Schumacher’s chances of pushing Bottas into the Audi seat are “real” but that he shouldn’t expect to hear anything in the coming weeks.

“Sauber/Audi will not make a decision this week about the choice of driver for 2025 other than Nico Hülkenberg,” he said.

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But this is a good thing for Schumacher because it gives him another round in the World Endurance Championship where he races with Alpine to show Binotto and the Audi bosses what he can do.

“The last WEC race in Sakhir/Bahrain is still to come,” he said. “If he drives as well there as he did in Fuji with his podium finish, then that will be further arguments for him to show good results again.”

It’s fair to say that Görner supports Schumacher, not Bottas.

“Binotto has now collected even more information about his factory, Audi’s development status and the driver issue and can now better assess what he would like to use the budget for in the next few years,” he said.

“An overpriced driver like Bottas, who will certainly not be a winning driver, would actually be a waste of money. In this respect, it is very, very clever of Binotto to play for time.”

He added: “German Formula 1 fans can continue to hope that Sauber/Audi has not yet made a decision.”

Read more: Valtteri Bottas’ ‘problem’ has been discovered with the risk to F1’s future