Aston Martin reserve driver Felipe Drugovich could make a surprise switch to Audi F1 for the F1 2025 season, it has been claimed.

Audi F1 confirmed to PlanetF1.com earlier this month that it has completed its full takeover of Sauber ahead of the team’s F1 2026 rebrand.

Felipe Drugovich to swap Aston Martin for Audi F1 reserve role?

The Swiss-based outfit will field an all-new driver lineup for the new season, with Nico Hulkenberg partnering 2024 F2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto after Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu were dropped at the end of 2024.

PlanetF1.com revealed on Monday that Bottas could be made available to customer teams McLaren and Williams after returning to Mercedes in a reserve role for F1 2025.

Drugovich was widely reported to be a candidate for a 2025 Sauber race seat before the signing of Bortoleto was announced in the aftermath of last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix.

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And it has emerged that the 24-year-old could still make the move to Hinwil for F1 2025, with Drugovich in contention to become Sauber’s new reserve driver.

A report by Swiss-German publication Blick, which is known to have close links to Sauber, has claimed that the team are set to choose between Drugovich and Antonio Giovinazzi for a 2025 reserve role.

Despite winning the prestigious F2 (formerly GP2) title in 2022, Drugovich has struggled to find his way into an F1 race seat since joining Aston Martin more than two years ago.

The Maringa-born driver made two practice appearances for the Silverstone-based team in 2024, driving in FP1 in Mexico and Abu Dhabi.

With current Aston Martin race drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll understood to be under contract for at least the next two seasons, however, Drugovich may be forced to look elsewhere to keep his hopes of landing a permanent F1 seat alive.

Giovinazzi, meanwhile, is familiar to Sauber having spent three full seasons with the team – then competing as Alfa Romeo – between 2019 and 2021.

The Italian has since emerged as a key figure in Ferrari’s World Endurance Championship operation, winning the legendary Le Mans 24 Hours race in 2023.

Reports last week claimed that Giovinazzi is poised to retain his role as Ferrari’s reserve driver, with Sauber’s current status as a Ferrari customer team making him an obvious option for the Swiss team for 2025.

It has been speculated that Giovinazzi could share the Ferrari reserve role with Zhou and Oliver Bearman, who will compete in his first full season with Haas in F1 2025.

Under the proposed plans, Bearman is likely to be regarded as Ferrari’s primary reserve driver and step up if either Lewis Hamilton or Charles Leclerc are ruled out.

Yet in an emergency scenario like last year’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, where Carlos Sainz was withdrawn shortly before final practice after developing appendicitis, Giovinazzi would be the driver to stand in at short notice.

However, Giovinazzi’s racing commitments mean Ferrari could be forced to appoint a third reserve driver to fill in on weekends when F1 clashes with WEC events.

Zhou, who has no plans to race in another category in 2025, has been heavily linked with a Ferrari reserve role over recent months and confirmed at last year’s Las Vegas Grand Prix that he has held talks with Ferrari over a move.

And he revealed that he is keen for any reserve role to include some track time as he targets a return to a permanent F1 seat for 2026.

He told media including PlanetF1.com: “Just staying in F1 [is my target].

“It would be in a reserve role, but I don’t know where to go yet. I haven’t decided which decision to make.

“We already spoke to some teams already before the [Sauber exit] announcement was released, but after the announcement a few other teams approached us, so quite a few good options I see my future with.

“But for me, I feel like I’m in a position where there’s no rush to make a decision because I need to make sure I’m in a team that can give me a chance to have a seat back [on the grid] and also in a team that I can continue to grow as a driver.

“We need to take a bit more time. It won’t be decided very [soon or in the] next months.”

Asked specifically about the rumours of a move to Ferrari, he replied: “Everybody [would] love to be driving in red, especially for the race seat.

“For the reserve [role], they show some interest so we are discussing it. There’s other options as well, so there’s no one team or the other I would prefer to join.

“I just want to make sure I’m in a team that has a good or competitive car that I can continue to learn and continue to learn for myself, from a driver’s and team perspective.

“And also [a team] trying to get me out there, doing some testing and taking the reserve role to work on the development as well.

“I would say you will see me in the paddock. Which colour, I don’t know, so I’ll leave that TBC.”

A Ferrari reserve role would likely see Zhou emerge as a serious contender to join the new Cadillac team for F1 2026.

Ferrari announced last month that they have struck a ‘multi-year’ technical partnership with Cadillac F1 to provide engines and gearboxes from 2026, with the American team expected to produce their own power unit from the 2028 season.

Graeme Lowdon, the former chief executive of the now-defunct Marussia F1 team, was recently appointed team principal of Cadillac F1.

He is understood to be a member of Zhou’s management team.

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