Mattia Binotto expands on key area where Kick Sauber need to change after being in 'survival mode'

Mattia Binotto has insisted that “a lot needs to be done” at Kick Sauber to transform the team’s culture, with the squad needing to develop a “winning mindset”.

The former Ferrari Team Principal joined the outfit in August last year as Chief Operating and Chief Technical Officer, following on from the exits of CEO Andreas Seidl and Audi executive Oliver Hoffmann, ahead of the team becoming Audi’s F1 works outfit in 2026.

The 2024 season was a massive disappointment for all associated with the Hinwil squad – they finished bottom of the constructors’ with just four points – and Binotto is now leading a sizeable transformation, with Audi holding lofty ambitions for their F1 project.

Part of that transformation sees Sauber fielding an all-new driver line-up in 2025, with veteran Nico Hulkenberg and exciting rookie Gabriel Bortoleto signed up, while last season’s pairing of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu departed.

ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - DECEMBER 08: Valtteri Bottas of Finland driving the (77) Kick — Sauber endured a tough 2024 with both Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu departing the team at the end of the year

But Binotto is adamant that the change needed runs far deeper to include everyone at Hinwil, with Sauber looking to turn around their fortunes and show signs of progress in the upcoming campaign.

When asked in Abu Dhabi – the final race weekend in 2024 – if he agreed with the out-going Bottas’s view that Sauber needed to develop a winning mentality, Binotto responded: “I fully agree with him. As a matter of fact, I think that team in the last years and decade has been there surviving, in a survival mode.

“So, at the end, it was about surviving, participating, trying to get the best out of it. But a winning mentality, a winning mindset, it's a different approach. So, there is certainly a lot that needs to be done in terms of culture, in terms of behaviours.”

With Audi’s 2026 arrival growing ever closer, Binotto was also keen to highlight other important factors in the squad’s transformation journey – including the news in November last year that the Qatar Investment Authority had signed definitive agreements to acquire a significant minority stake in Sauber Holding AG.

ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - DECEMBER 10: Gabriel Bortoleto of Brazil and Stake F1 Team Kick — Rookie Gabriel Bortoleto will join Nico Hulkenberg in driving for Sauber in 2025

“It's a long journey, we know about that, and acting on behaviours, maybe it's even the most difficult, but we have started our journey,” Binotto continued.

“I think we've got a few projects... I have to say that since I started already a lot has happened since then, which is not only the improvement at the racetrack, signing Bortoleto, having a new line-up for next year.

“It's about Qatar as well, investment and partnership – which for us, it's a lot of capital injection – but showing that overall as a team we are moving in that direction with the right approach, the right thinking, thinking big, which is exactly the mindset we're discussing about.”