Overlooked Sutil & van der Garde both aggrieved at losing out on seat; Kaltenborn says any dispute will be dealt with internally; Nasr deal happened "very quickly"; End of Telmex & Sirotkin relationships
Tuesday 25 November 2014 17:54, UK
Sauber chief Monisha Kaltenborn insists the team are in a “clear situation” over their drivers for 2015 despite Adrian Sutil and Giedo van der Garde each feeling they have deals in place to race.
Fresh from causing one driver market surprise at last weekend’s United States GP by announcing Caterham’s Marcus Ericsson as one of their two drivers for next year, cash-strapped Sauber created another on Wednesday night by naming Williams reserve Felipe Nasr as their other driver for 2015.
If the Nasr announcement stunned the media, then it also appears to have come as surprising news to both Sutil, one of Sauber’s two ousted exisiting race drivers along with Esteban Gutierrez, and Dutchman van der Garde, the team’s test and reserve driver.
Sutil has hinted he could pursue legal action over what he claims is the second year of his Sauber contract, telling Sky Sports News HQ: "The team has made a strange and risky decision so let’s see what the outcome is because the announcement is just an announcement and doesn’t mean much to me at the moment."
Van der Garde is also understood to believe that he has a deal in place to race while Gutierrez told Sky F1: "It looks like the team have some interest other than sport."
But put to her that she appeared to have at least three racers on her books for 2015, Kaltenborn replied: “No, we have announced our two drivers. I’m not aware that next year more than two cars would be used.
“We’ve announced our drivers and that’s how it’s going to be.”
On the matter of Sutil's supposed two-year contract, the Sauber chief added: “As I have said, we have announced our drivers. If there are any other points related to it these are internal matters which we will discuss internally.”
Kaltenborn, however, sharply denied that there already was already a situation that already needed addressing and insisted that she and the team were firmly in control.
“I am clearly aware of my situation and I know what I’m doing, We’ve announced our drivers and anything else we will sort out internally,” she said. “It’s for me a clear situation."
With the Nasr deal having appeared to have come out of the blue, Kaltenborn indeed revealed that “it all happened very quickly”, with the signing of the Brazilian ensuring his personal sponsor Banco do Brasil also joins the struggling Hinwil operation.
Initial speculation at Interlagos has put the value of the deal to the team at around $24 million and Kaltenborn acknowledged that finances had played a key role in their hiring of Ericsson and Nasr, with the arrivals another step towards helping safeguard the future of the team.
“You have to look at the overall situation in Formula 1. It’s financially very challenging and private teams have to make decisions," she explained.
“They have to take financial aspects into consideration. That’s the situation; it’s no different for us. It’s a step in the right direction, like we have taken a couple of steps into that direction.”
Kaltenborn confirmed that the decision to drop Mexican youngster Gutierrez meant the end for the team's sponsor deal with the Telmex communications firm, while she also isn't expecting their relationship with Russian teenager Sergey Sirotkin to continue into 2015. The Russian had originally been expected to race for Sauber this year but funds from his country never materialised to the expected extent.
