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'Troubled Sauber on the verge of collapsing'

Published on 04 Apr 2016 12:09
6
By: Rob Veenstra

In the early rounds of the 2016 season, Sauber is clinging to mere survival. The Swiss team cleared a high hurdle recently after falling behind in February wage payments to its 300 staff, but more problems are now obviously on display.

Felipe Nasr, the Brazilian driver whose sponsor Banco do Brasil is Sauber's main backer, complained vociferously throughout the Bahrain weekend about his car. "This car is terrible to drive!" he exclaimed on team radio. Nasr also told Brazil's Globo Esporte in Bahrain: "Clearly we have some problems with my car. Now we need to really analyse everything before China," he added.

But there are worrying rumours that Sauber might reach the end of the road in the next couple of weeks, before making the trip to the Shanghai metropolis. Team co-owner and boss Monisha Kaltenborn was not even in Bahrain, amid speculation she stayed behind in Hinwil to address Sauber's urgent financial problems. "It is no secret that the fourth-oldest F1 team is in trouble," read a report in Speed Week.

Kaltenborn is a fierce critic of the sport's current revenue-distribution model which vastly favours the biggest and most successful teams. And that is amid a backdrop of steadily declining sponsorship within the struggling sport, according to James Allen of the Financial Times.

F1 sponsorship guru Zak Brown agrees: "The costs are, to me, the single largest issue and the one that then drives many of the others. We have an industry that is exploding in cost, and collectively they are not able to gather and get those costs under control," he added. (GMM)

F1 News Felipe Nasr Sauber

Replies (6)

Vet5

Posts: 225
I'm sorry but it was bound to happen with Kaltenborn. She has no clue! When all the teams got together last year about the parallel engine scheme that was to be introduced @ a fraction of 22m Euro price tag of the Hybrids, she disagreed with it (Probably to not piss of Ferrari) but if you're team are financially unstable you should be accepting every avenue of cost saving! I don't feel sorry for her, I feel sorry for the employee's that she's in charge of!
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- Apr 4 2016 - 12:33
- mclarenfan1968
  
  Posts: 1,027
  True story, she is a crook. The moment she is out of the picture that team is saved. More importantly though she shouldn't be allowed to just leave like that, she needs to be put behind bars for all the financial scandals she has been involved in.
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  Apr 4 2016 - 12:49
- Vet5
  
  Posts: 225
  Totally agree mate! I really hope Sauber don't have faith in her! She needs to go! Its going to come to the stage where Ecclestone is paying the wages like he did with Lotus last year! Its horrible to see teams struggle, they need to get rid of this expensive hybrid technology!
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  Apr 4 2016 - 13:36
mcbhargav

Posts: 1,332
We need more fighters like Sauber, with a better Management. Time to follow the Haas model? Sauber-Honda is better for both.
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- Apr 4 2016 - 18:18
khasmir

Posts: 893
Would be a shame to see this team disappear...
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- Apr 4 2016 - 19:15
- calle.itw
  
  Posts: 8,527
  Agreed, Sauber has never been a favourite team for me, but they have a nice history, and I'd hate for them to vanish.
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  Apr 4 2016 - 22:26