Valtteri Bottas, like many others, did not step away from taking a dig at his team’s new name. The Finnish driver recently joined the bandwagon of trolls that ‘Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber’ has been experiencing since the outfit formerly known as Alfa Romeo rebranded himself.
Bottas appeared in an interview with The Project with his partner Tiffany Cromwell where he talked about his new team’s name, among other things like his habits. During the conversation, a reporter asked Bottas about his feedback on his team’s new name. For Bottas, the name is extremely long.
The reporter asked Bottas if it was difficult to remember the new name of the Hinwil-based outfit. asked the reporter. The former Mercedes driver hilariously responded, “Can you remind me what’s the name again?”
This brought in a series of laughter among everyone present in the interview.
Ever since Alfa Romeo became Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber, it has been a laughingstock among fans. Fans on social media have been comparing the name to a piece of meat [steak] and its safe to say, not many people like the rebranding, particularly because of how big the Alfa Romeo name was.
The transaction is declined change the name it’s worse than steak F1 https://t.co/jImtcY39Lr
— chelx (@ksnk__c) January 19, 2024
Alfa Romeo joined F1 in 2019, and didn’t really achieve a lot with Sauber in terms of results. At the end of the 2023 season, they decided to pull away, leaving Sauber scratching their heads as to what they can rename the team to. Initially, it was reported that they would be called Kick Sauber but that changed to Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber.
Stake comes ahead of Kick in the name mainly because of how much money they paid. Stake paid $94 million to Valtteri Bottas’ team and according to F1 expert Karun Chandhok, it is more than what Kick paid as a sponsor.
Valtteri Bottas hopes Stake offers better luck and performance than Alfa Romeo
For Valtteri Bottas and the team, 2023 was not particularly memorable. They finished P9 with 16 points in 22 races, 39 less than their 2022 haul which was a huge step backward for a team of their size.
As for Bottas, he could only claim 10 points and finish the season in P15 in the Drivers’ Championship. His teammate Zhou Guanyu, on the other hand, finished the season with six points and took P18 in the standings. This has come after the Sauber-owned team had a bright start to their 2022 regulations.
Gearing up for launch #C44 #F1 pic.twitter.com/L9ZqeZ6sl2
— Stake F1 Team (@stakef1team) January 7, 2024
They looked competitive in 2022 but lost all their mojo in 2023 and the reason is still unknown. However, there is scope for improvement in terms of race pace, straight-line speed, and tire degradation. This is probably the reason why Bottas’ team is looking at a complete revamp for their 2024 F1 challenger.
Under the guidance of new Technical Director James Key, the Swiss team will have a new direction heading into the new season. During the making of the new car, Bottas will have an important job on his hands – provide valuable input to make it better. They will be looking to better their position in the standings in 2024 and 2025 before Audi joins the sport in 2026.
