Things are very difficult at Sauber and as I’ve written before, I love this team and hate to see this happening. Monisha Kaltenborn has been working to get sponsors but after the departure of Mark Smith a few weeks ago and now head of track engineering, Tim Maylon, it’s not looking good at all. Maylon was only on the job for three months.
Sauber has also announced they will not be attending the in-season test in Spain as it requires a reserve driver and they have none as well as they are planning no developments to the car at this time.
I wonder how much Peter Sauber is involved at this point, if any. It seems that this team is a candidate for acquisition as it has a great staff and facilities to launch a serious run in Formula 1 if they had a good backer. A manufacturer might find they intriguing as well but with the way Haas F1 has entered the sport, perhaps no privateer is looking at a Sauber-type investment anymore?
There were some speculations that Ferrari could/would buy out Sauber and turn it into an Alpha Romeo Team. Seems to me that that’ll probably not happen. With the example of the Haas and Ferrari partnership, it seems more logical Ferrari would favor that Alpha Romeo have the same kind of deal with them. Sauber needs some Arab prince to bank them like a few of the British teams have. Force India also seem to be in peril.
Bernie should buy Sauber. That way he’ll have one vote on the Teams’ side of the Strategy Group, in addition to his 6 as FOM president.
Plus he can authorize himself more prize money.
Seems like a win-win.
He should call the new team Bambino Racing!
For the third month running, team salaries haven’t been paid on time. It isn’t that surprising that recent recruits have changed their mind about staying. Sauber being based in Switzerland would require a move of home for new nominees, and with doubts over whether they will be paid it is understandable that they choose to return home and look for another job.