Vasseur: Title sponsor deal a huge step for Sauber

Frederic Vasseur says that Sauber's title sponsor deal with Alfa Romeo is a huge step forward. After enduring a tough 2017 season the Swiss team will be partnered by Alfa Romeo for the upcoming season, and will be powered by up-to-date Ferrari power units.

Sauber ran with year old engines last season, which contributed massively to its poor results. Having originally planned to race with Honda engines in 2018, Frederic Vasseur struck up a new deal with Ferrari to receive the same engines as the works team when he took over as Sauber's team principal.

At the end of 2017, the Hinwil squad announced a partnership with Alfa Romeo, which Vasseur stating that it's a great step forward. Admitting that Sauber is a little bit behind on the technical side, he believes it will be worth it in the long run.

"It's not extra work on the technical side because we were already flat-out," he told RACER. "The situation is that we changed from Honda to the Ferrari engine and the Alfa Romeo deal quite late because it was the end of July, so for sure we delayed the design a little bit, but it was on purpose. 

"On the technical side for sure we are a little bit late and for the company and the marketing and communications team it was also tricky. To have a title sponsor for the team is a good move, but also a huge step and we have to reinforce every single department and recruit a lot and so on. But for sure it was an exciting time as well as a tricky one.

"It's much better to have this problem than to have to deal with the guys in the factory having nothing to do! For sure when we decided to come back to the Ferrari engine the design of the car with the Honda engine was already started. 

"That meant a small delay when we had to redesign the back of the car to change the approach a little bit, but that's life. It's not a big deal, it's more of a rush for the team but now we have a long-term deal and it's not a problem if for a couple of weeks at the beginning it is an issue, we have to be focused on the next years and not on the last weeks."