Former Ferrari performance engineer joins Sauber to work with Valtteri Bottas. Steven Petrik joins Sauber to work with Valtteri Bottas.

In Miami, Sauber arrived with some updates both for the front and rear wings to adapt to the specific demands of this circuit. However, technical changes aren’t the only news of the U.S. weekend because behind the scenes, the team is continuing to transform itself ahead of Audi’s arrival in 2026.

A few days ago, the Swiss team announced the arrival of Hulkenberg starting next year, aiming at a driver not only with vast experience but also undeniable talent. However, it’s not just the driver front the team’s top management is working on, as over the past few months, there’s been a massive recruitment campaign to strengthen the personnel for the next regulatory cycle.

Among the Miami weekend’s novelties is the change of Valtteri Bottas’ race engineer, which came almost as a surprise, even for the Finnish driver himself. Up until the last race in China, Alex Chan was assisting the Sauber driver, an engineer with a long history in the Swiss team, having also worked with Kimi Raikkonen in his last F1 venture under the Alfa Romeo colors.

However, starting from this weekend, Bottas has begun collaborating with a different race engineer, a change that actually surprised the Finnish driver given the tight timing with which it all unfolded. “I think this is a question for the team. Yes, it was a rather sudden change. Obviously, it’s a Sprint weekend, so working with a new engineer won’t be easy, but of course, we’ll try to make the most of this situation. But yes, it’s a rather sudden change,” explained Bottas during the Miami press conference at the beginning of the weekend, explaining that he was not aware of the reasons behind such a sudden change.

It’s indeed quite unusual for such a change to occur during the season unless long-planned promotions are involved. Generally, it’s expected to wait until the end of the championship, so that driver and engineer can find the right chemistry during the winter break.

“I think many things are changing, and there are changes underway. Obviously, some novelties are long-term. I don’t know all the reasons behind every decision that’s made. But it’s clear there’s a change happening. People are leaving. People are arriving,” added Bottas.

Specifically, the Finnish driver’s new race engineer is Steven Petrik, coming from Ferrari, where he held the role of Performance Engineer. The American is part of the group of engineers who were trained with the Prancing Horse through the F1 Engineering Academy program. Over the years spent in Maranello, Petrik worked with both Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz before embarking on this new adventure at Sauber, where he will take on a role with greater responsibilities.

In reality, Petrik has been working with the team for a few months already, taking on the role of Bottas’ race engineer during a Pirelli test held at Suzuka a few days after the Japanese Grand Prix. In that initial contact, there was a first connection, which then prompted the team to anticipate the change. Bottas was informed of the change about two weeks ago during a meeting held after the Chinese Grand Prix.

According to Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Sauber’s head, what drove the acceleration to make some changes quickly was directly Andreas Seidl, the team’s CEO: “Andreas Seidl decided to anticipate some decisions and to begin implementing the changes that will transition the current structure to the final structure we will have in the future. Naturally, at certain times of the season, certain decisions, such as changing a race engineer, can have a certain impact, but we needed to start making these changes,” explained Alunni Bravi.