Sauber is in a race for money after discovering its 2012 car is up to speed with F1′s richest teams.

As ever in formula one, world championships are won not on the basis of a clever initial design, but on a team’s ability to continue to develop it throughout a long season.

According to O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper, the formerly BMW-owned Sauber team’s chief executive Monisha Kaltenborn admits that the Hinwil based outfit cannot compete on that front with the likes of McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull.

“It’s a shame,” she is quoted as saying.

“I hope we can show enough potential so that some companies decide to invest in our project,” said Kaltenborn, with the Brazilian newspaper estimating that Sauber’s budget is EUR 80 million this year.

In contrast, the top four teams’ budgets are believed to be all above EUR 220m.

Kaltenborn told F1′s official website recently that Sauber would back a push to impose a budget cap — an issue that triggered the big teams’ bitter political war with former FIA president Max Mosley a few years ago.

“We … have also openly said that we are not satisfied with our sponsor situation because we have high targets and to achieve them you need appropriate funding,” she continued.

“We still need to work on that side of things, as of course the more funding you have the more you can develop — and it shows on the track.

“I have said before that when we look back we practically never had enough money to do what we really wanted to. The question is always how big the gap is — sometimes it is bigger, sometimes it is smaller.”

With the pecking-order still not entirely clear after two races, it could be set to change all over again in the near future.

That is the view of Peter Sauber, the Hinwil based team’s owner and boss who witnessed his Mexican driver Sergio Perez display almost race-winning form at Sepang recently with the impressive new C31 car.

He argues that the real key to 2012 is ongoing car development.

“The decisive factor of course is how quickly can the teams develop their cars,” he wrote in his column for the Swiss newspaper Blick.

“Most will have small improvements in the next two races in China and Bahrain, before the major development stages are triggered for the start of the European season in Barcelona.

“Then, the balance of power could change,” said Sauber.

Currently fourth in the constructors’ championship, Sauber has after just two races in 2012 already scored almost 70 per cent of the final points tallies collected by the formerly BMW-owned team in the past two seasons.

But not only Sauber has been impressive, so too has almost the entire field of 2012.

“The quality in formula one has never been as great as it is today,” he said. “If you don’t get everything right in qualifying, you lose a number of positions.

“Also, the midfield has moved significantly closer to the front, which can mean an unusually mixed order on the grid,” said Sauber.

 Lotus could become the next team to withdraw from the formula one teams association FOTA.
Already departed are HRT, Sauber and Toro Rosso and also the top teams Red Bull and Ferrari, leaving fellow grandees McLaren, Mercedes and the others on the wrong side of their competitors’ former unity.

Now, this week, team owner Gerard Lopez has been quoted as admitting that Lotus is contemplating pulling out.

The reasons for the withdrawals appear different, with Red Bull having been accused of breaching the gentleman’s Resource Restriction Agreement (RRA) and Ferrari rumoured to want to use its individual power to shape the future of the sport’s rules and structure.

The formerly BMW-owned Sauber, however, insisted that recent cost-cutting in formula one has not made it easier for smaller teams to survive.

“The RRA was a step in the right direction, but now other steps must urgently follow,” he told F1′s official website.

“It definitely has not become easier for the smaller teams.”

But beneath the surface, unity has not broken down completely, argues McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh, who doubles as the FOTA chairman.

It is true, for example, that the new non-FOTA members will continue to respect aspects of the body’s agreements, such as the summer factory closure.

“I’m not too hung up on the brand ‘FOTA’,” Whitmarsh said recently.

“I think what’s important is that the teams realise there are critical issues within this sport where it will be better if we cooperate and take sensible decisions, and I hope and believe that we’ll continue to do that.”

He added last month: “Relations between McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari remain very good indeed.”

Peter Sauber on Saturday played down rumours linking his Hinwil based team with Nicolas Todt.

Spanish reports on Friday said Frenchman Todt, the 32-year-old son of FIA president Jean Todt, could merge his GP2 team ART with Sauber rather than go it alone in F1 next year.

El Mundo Deportivo said Peter Sauber’s ambition for his struggling former BMW-owned team is to “find a strong and stable partner and again retreat into the background”.

It is also rumoured that Todt recently visited the Swiss team’s headquarters.

But Sauber told the Swiss newspaper Blick: “I am not selling my team!”

(GMM)

French GP2 team ART could merge with an existing team rather than go it alone in formula one next year.

The outfit headed by FIA president Jean Todt’s son Nicolas has applied to debut in 2011.

But Spain’s El Mundo Deportivo reports that ART is also looking at other options, including merging with the under-financed former BMW-owned outfit Sauber.

The move would make Spanish hopeful Epsilon Euskadi, already with a state of the art headquarters, wind tunnel and proven Le Mans car-making abilities, the favourite to fill the 13th team slot next year.

“I think we have arguments that are difficult to refute,” said Epsilon’s Joan Villadelprat.

On the other hand, El Mundo said Peter Sauber’s ambition for his struggling Hinwil based squad is to “find a strong and stable partner and again retreat into the background”.

Apr.27 (GMM)  Sauber needs some more sponsors to ensure the C29 car can be properly developed, Pedro de la Rosa insists.

Four races into the 2010 season and still with a mainly blank white livery, the formerly BMW-owned team is struggling with poor reliability and lagging pace.

Team boss Peter Sauber insists the team has a guaranteed budget to survive the 2010 season.

But when asked about Sauber’s sponsorship situation, de la Rosa told the Swiss newspaper Blick: “This is a very important point.

“With each day it is more difficult to find backers for 2010, but without finances a normal development of the car is hardly possible,” said the Spaniard.

Asked about the car’s main problems, he answered: “There have been too many engine problems, and at the rear of the car something is not right — it is too unstable.

“We simply must believe in our abilities and those of our new technical boss James Key.  And also that luck might be with us sometimes as well.”

De la Rosa returned to a full time racing role in 2010 after several years as McLaren’s test driver, and it is already rumoured that Sauber is considering replacing him with a pay-driver on the basis of his initial form.

He admits it has been a trying campaign so far.

“I knew that with Sauber, difficult work was awaiting me.  But after the tests in February I didn’t think it would be quite so hard.”

After a deceptively impressive winter season for the formerly BMW-owned squad, the C29 car has struggled for pace so far in 2010. Peter Sauber said he felt most sorry for departing technical boss Willy Rampf in the wake of the Swiss team’s Malaysian “debacle”.

On the grid formation laps at Sepang, Pedro de la Rosa’s Ferrari-powered car suffered an engine failure, and teammate Kamui Kobayashi’s V8 unit lasted just 9 laps more.

Malaysia was 56-year-old German Rampf’s last race at the helm, with former Force India technical director James Key, 38, starting work on 1 April.

“I feel most sorry for Willy Rampf. For nearly 15 years he was our loyal technical boss, and at his very last race he has to live through such a debacle,” 66-year-old team chief and founder Sauber told the Swiss newspaper Blick.

“Until the last day he fought for our team, and I know how much these losses affect him, even if he cannot do anything about it,” he added.

Ferrari is investigating the precise cause of the two engine failures, but Sauber said on Sunday that the problem was with the pneumatic system.

The failure aboard Fernando Alonso’s works Ferrari, meanwhile, was different.

F1’s three new teams aside, Sauber is the only entrant yet to score a single world championship point in 2010.

Peter Sauber, who is still looking for a main sponsor for his Hinwil based team, said: “Yes, it is our worst ever position.

“I knew that it would not be easy for us, but I didn’t count on it being quite so hard,” he added.

After a deceptively impressive winter season for the formerly BMW-owned squad, the C29 car has struggled for pace so far in 2010.

On the grid formation laps at Sepang, Pedro de la Rosa’s Ferrari-powered car suffered an engine failure, and teammate Kamui Kobayashi’s V8 unit lasted just 9 laps more.

Malaysia was 56-year-old German Rampf’s last race at the helm, with former Force India technical director James Key, 38, starting work on 1 April.

“I feel most sorry for Willy Rampf. For nearly 15 years he was our loyal technical boss, and at his very last race he has to live through such a debacle,” 66-year-old team chief and founder Sauber told the Swiss newspaper Blick.

“Until the last day he fought for our team, and I know how much these losses affect him, even if he cannot do anything about it,” he added.

Ferrari is investigating the precise cause of the two engine failures, but Sauber said on Sunday that the problem was with the pneumatic system.

The failure aboard Fernando Alonso’s works Ferrari, meanwhile, was different.

F1’s three new teams aside, Sauber is the only entrant yet to score a single world championship point in 2010.

Peter Sauber, who is still looking for a main sponsor for his Hinwil based team, said: “Yes, it is our worst ever position.

“I knew that it would not be easy for us, but I didn’t count on it being quite so hard,” he added.