2024 Stake F1 Team Sauber

[Vanja #66]

Team: Stake F1 Team Sauber
Base: Hinwil, Zurich, Switzerland

Team principal: /
Technical director: James Key
Chief Executive Officer: Andreas Seidl

Race drivers:
Valtteri Bottas 77
Guanyu Zhou 24

Chassis: C44
Engine: Ferrari V6 Turbo

This thread is to discuss the 2024 Stake F1 Team Sauber

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https://www.srf.ch/news/international/f ... -eroeffnet

Swiss Gaming Commission opens proceedings against Sauber. Stake isn't licensed in Switzerland and is therefore illegal

Stake not having a gambling license in Switzerland means it is not allowed to advertise it.

For legal expert Patrick Krauskopf it is therefore clear: Sauber is probably violating the advertising ban: “Sponsoring would be allowed. In the present case, the brands Stake and Sauber are so linked together, or the term Stake is so strongly imprinted in the minds of viewers, that we have probably crossed the red line into unauthorized advertising," says Krauskopf, who works as a professor of competition law at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences.

The Federal Casino Commission has also become active. It has opened proceedings against Sauber, as was confirmed to SRF.

In addition, Stake will not be able to be licensed as it doesn't meet the requirements of many of the countries with more robust gambling regulation. They are only licensed in Curacao meaning they're essentially unregulated


An awkward rebrand for the team could be on the horizon.

[Vanja #66]

Wow, what an oversight from Seidl... Guess the simplest thing will be to rebrand everything to Kick F1 Team full time.

[fasterthanks]

The Race said they believe there are four territories where they can’t use the Stake name, and will likely use something Kick-related. ([https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t ... 0644287012]The Race Podcast[/url], at ~14:30)

[De Wet]

Hope It Stays Green...

[OnEcRiTiCaL]

Stake Removed From Sauber Website Amid Legal Turmoil

https://www.si.com/fannation/racing/f1b ... rmoil-lm22

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Looks like it might become Kick F1 Team soon

[Holm86]

Slight rebranding

[wogx]

Any info about the filming day? IIRC they should be driving today in Barcelona

[scuderiabrandon]

Any info about the filming day? IIRC they should be driving today in Barcelona

[PapayaFan481]

Quiet thread!!

Will say, you could always tell when the Sauber was onscreen yesterday!!

[continuum16]

Yes, it is quiet. And besides any major Audi news I struggle to see this thread getting past page 5 lol. That's not a mark against them, it's just the team is a bit anonymous. Sauber have landed in an uncanny valley of sorts; their car has no apparent standout qualities (besides its livery probably) for good or bad. It's not best or worst at anything at the moment. It's not like the previous Williamses with their superior straight line speed or even older (V8 days) Lotus supreme tire deg which would suggest that certain circuits or conditions would suit the car. They seem like 5th to 9th place in most measurable categories at the moment, so a lot of p12-p16s incoming bar some radical technical developments.

Its drivers are fine, but hardly generational talents. I feel that's a pretty universally-accepted sentiment, even if one of their drivers is technically my favorite. They have competent technical people working there but nobody with F1* championship pedigree and so therefore no real suggestion of an imminent technical breakthrough. They are financially sound albeit not necessarily flush with cash. There's not a lot to talk about for the time being it seems like.

[Vanja #66]

Vasseur is sorely missed in this team. The overall performance drop is astonishing... Audi will have to rebuild everything if they want to get to the top and it will take time.

[Andi76]

First Floor Picture

[FW17]

Audi expands commitment to Formula 1 with 100% takeover of Sauber

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/arti ... w5btt4LuSw

So what happens now? Sauber is still one of the smallest teams with with 400 odd employees which is far smaller than works teams such as Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes who all have in excess of 1500 people working, Are Audi going to expand the team at Hinwil?

Initially it was a condition to sale when Longbow planned a 75% sale that the Hinwil will be the base of operation. Audi acknowledged that and said they will continue to operate out of Hinwil for all race and engineering operations while power train would be based in Germany. The Hinwil base was rumored for to be one of the reasons the Andretti sale failed.

Now that Audi are 100% owners, is this precondition still active? Will Audi be able to increase the staff strength in Hinwil from ~400 to >1500? Or was it that Hinwil will now only form part of the base such as windtunnel model making, windtunnel testing and some manufacturing, while the bulk of the operations will now move to Germany to be along with powertrain development?

The powertrain division had grown to 300 by mid 2023 since its inception at the Neuburg site, WIth its new test benches coming online through 2023.