Sauber F1 Team 2013

[Phil]

I'm pretty sure that was mentioned last night in our local news who had an interview with Peter Sauber.


EDIT; found something:
http://www.20min.ch/sport/motorsport/st ... --11513927

Not sure on the accuracy of this, but here's the quote:

Deutsche Medien berichteten sogar, dass Nico Hülkenberg seinen Ende Saison auslaufenden Vertrag gekündigt habe, weil er auf ausstehende Lohnzahlungen wartet.

-- translated: German media has been reporting that Nico Hülkenberg has terminated his at years end expiring contract with Sauber because of unpayed salary payments.

[turbof1]

If that is true, it could mean only 2 things:
-He inmediately quits at Sauber
-Or more plausible, the contract contained an option for an additional year. Terminating the contract means Sauber cannot force Hulkenberg to continue on.

The latter seems more likely. I don't see Hulkenberg just giving half a season away just because payment is late. Even if he doesn't get paid anymore for the rest of the season, it is better for him to continue driving to increase chances he lands a seat at Lotus next year.

[Slife]

Random question, but didn't BMW give Sauber's facilities an extensive upgrade ? Maybe the facilities are much for Sauber to maintain now ?

[TheRMVR]

Random question, but didn't BMW give Sauber's facilities an extensive upgrade ? Maybe the facilities are much for Sauber to maintain now ?

I'm not sure, but the car has been lacking sponsors since last year, and even though Gutierrez is bringing in some dough I'm sure theyre missing Perez his financial power.
What I don't understand is why a team like Sauber who had such a successful car last season completely started over and designed a new car instead of building on the previous model.

[JimClarkFan]

What happened the funding?

Also where is Hulkenburg going to? This guys deserves to be in formula1, I hope he makes a good team.

[marcush.]

as I understand there is a russian investor in line to inject 25 mill € and that would reduce the delta to about 7..but stillit seems odd we only now hear of the trouble when it was clear from the outset there is a massive gap in finance ...even if the new car and Hulk would have been an outright success it still would not have been enough to fill that hole.The impression is this is placed to pave the ground for big changes in Hinwil or put a bit of pressure on some to commit?
Still Peter sauber insists the situation is surely humilating but still they are far away from being forced to sell off the team .
BTW-Bernie already said it would be easy for Sauber to sell the team if there was the desire or need but he thought Sauber needed a chance to carry on and stay as that team even though it may be necessary to take investors on board.
On a plus side Sauber is a well equipped entity with top of the line up to date facilities-namely THE windtunnel in the business and infrastructure capable of housing a full blown works effort ...so a huge cry form Caterham ,Marussia or HRT or even TR or FI who need to build and invest before being able to use the equipment .Here all is in place and not in need of refurbishing and upgrading...

[MOWOG]

Formula One desperately needs to figure out how to field competitive teams on a budget that is affordable. At present, only the 2 or 3 top teams can afford to be fully competitive, and the sport rewards those top teams with massive amounts of money while the lesser teams starve, or sell shares in the team to shady investors or take on drivers who are in the seat solely because they bring sponsorship money.

Frankly, the sport is on a trajectory to self destruct. The powers that be COULD address the problem, but they refuse to do so. :-"

[marcush.]

in for some romance?
Forget it ,Formula 1 was never ever affordable and it will never be as it is and should aim to represent the pinnacle of motorsports.
Basically the market is regulating itself as without the bigmoneys available you will not be able to spend and if them works teams and works engine deals drop out a lot of things will stop all of a sudden.(who said "works" engine deals are set ?)

Just look at the motorhome (!!) of sauber ...this is an incredible piece of kit in its own right...and it does nothing for on track performance !

[FoxHound]

I bet that motorhome has paid for itself by catering for a few sponsorship deals.

[marcush.]

Peter Sauber has spoken out:
http://www.motorsport-total.com/f1/news ... 71402.html


We are far from giving up .in fact we are close to announcing new Investors not only for this year but also for the years to come .
We are here to stay in Formula 1 long term.(source RTL ,Motorsport News)

he is especially surprised how everyone is jumping at them these days and states they had more difficult times back when BMW quit and he had to buy back the company...it looks like BMW did not hand it over simply but Sauber had to inject more or less his complete posessions -at least all he could afford within reason whatever that is...

[JimClarkFan]

It looks like they are getting closer to a deal, hopefully.

I don't think it possible to fairly make the smaller teams more competitive short of giving the bigger teams a handicap.

[Kiril Varbanov]

Sauber secures long-term future after deal with Russian companies - http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/108788

[stefan_]

Announcement of Partnership

We are pleased to announce a partnership between the Investment Cooperation International Fund, the State Fund of Development of North-West Russian Federation and the National Institute of Aviation Technologies with Sauber Motorsport AG, incorporating the promotion of the sport Formula 1 in Russia and jointly developing high-technological solutions.

With the National Institute of Aviation Technologies, one of the leading scientific research institutions in Russia, the Sauber F1 Team will benefit from the advanced know-how of the front-end Russian scientists and engineers. The objective of the partnership is to open up new perspectives and revenue streams by commercialising jointly developed technologies.

The partnership includes further activities for the promotion of the inaugural Formula 1 Grand Prix in Sochi in 2014 and attracting the talented young Russian generation towards motorsport. In particular, a development programme will be set up for the Russian driver Sergey Sirotkin to prepare him as a racing driver for the team in 2014.

This extensive co-operation will showcase Russian innovation at the pinnacle of motorsport. At the same time, the Sauber F1 Team will have a solid foundation to increase its competitiveness on a long-term basis.

Details of the cooperation will be communicated at a later stage.

[turbof1]

So they are safe for now. That is a relief. I wonder how they ended up being in problems anyway. They financially did just fine until this year. Just throwing a bone in there: Monisha Kaltenborn could be a bit unexperienced to secure deals. That gets a bit confirmed by the fact that Peter Sauber suddenly steps out of the shadows and things are rolling again.

I also don't understand an important thing: they hired guittierez to keep the telmex backing, which was financially a big deal. How come that suddenly isn't enough? Last year they did very well without any financial problems.

I also have some concerns about this russian deal. It was reported so many teams wanted this deal, but the team that financially poses the biggest risk gets it. That only makes me believe the russians were having high or unreasonable demands. The 17 year old driver seems to be one of them, but probably also not the only questionable demand. I do hope the deal does not backfire into Sauber's face.

[Phil]

I think Sauber has always struggled a bit, since the loss of Petronas as their major sponsor. There's a good point, if last year was similar - but perhaps, investors or suppliers weren't too worried last year when they were actually performing at a rather high level. Since this year has been rather downhill so far, perhaps people have been putting on pressure to get payed adding to the 'circle of descruction' - leading to more bad press and therefore more pressure surrounding their financial situation.