Guenther Steiner weighs in on F1 driver market with Sauber and Alpine yet to decide

Ex-Haas F1 boss Guenther Steiner expects Valtteri Bottas to keep his drive at Sauber for next season.

Three teams are still yet to officially announce their driver line-up for next year.

Mercedes are expected to opt for Andrea Kimi Antonelli as their replacement for Lewis Hamilton.

This leaves two free spots at Sauber and Alpine.

With Carlos Sainz joining Williams, both teams have limited options.

Bottas could keep his drive at Sauber, particularly as there’s no obvious alternative to put alongside Nico Hulkenberg.

Steiner feels that Bottas is the best driver available.

“I think Kimi Antonelli is going to Mercedes, it sounds to me,” Steiner said on The Red Flags podcast.

“Who’s going now to Sauber? I think they will keep Bottas, I guess. As Audi, you need to get the best driver available. Alpine also need the best driver available.

“Bottas has won a lot of races in his career. At the moment, he just cannot show it because the car does not let him do it, but otherwise he was always a good driver. [Hulkenberg and Bottas] are both good racers.”

Steiner is unsure which driver Alpine will go for, with Jack Doohan reportedly the favourite now.

“We interviewed Flavio on the grid for RTL and my colleague asked Flavio,” he added.

“‘Everybody’s in the race for that seat,’ he said. ‘Everybody.’ That was his answer, so I just have to repeat what Flavio told me so I have no opinion.

“K-Mag could be an option. They’ve got Jack Doohan, they’ve got Mick Schumacher.

“[Don’t ask me about Schumacher] because otherwise I’ll get abuse and [won’t be able to] sleep again.”