Rumour – Todt’s ART to merge with Sauber?

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”.

© 2010, www.fantasyracings.com. All rights reserved. The total or partial reproduction of text, photographs or illustrations is not permitted in any form. Copyright by F1 Teams Media Departaments, (GMM) and (CIAM)

0 commentsback to post

Other articlesgo to homepage

	Expert thinks Lotus playing down chassis crisis(0) Lotus is grappling with a major problem less than one month before the start of the 2012 season. The former Renault team has sensationally abandoned this week’s Barcelona test and returned to its Enstone headquarters, after an unspecified chassis fault was detected on the new E20 car on Tuesday. “We’ll put the right measures in

	Toro Rosso’s driver shakeup too late(1) Jaime Alguersuari has told his fans he “will return” to formula one despite not having a seat on the 2012 grid. Along with Sebastien Buemi, who moved to Red Bull’s reserve role, Spaniard Alguersuari was dumped by the energy drink company’s rookie team Toro Rosso. A Barcelona native, the 21-year-old’s fans showed their support by

	Bottas: Renault engine better than Cosworth(0) Valtteri Bottas has given some insight into Williams’ decision to switch to Renault power for this year. For the past two years, the famous British team has been independent UK marque Cosworth’s highest profile customer. But for 2012 the Grove based team has switched to Renault, the maker of world champion Red Bull’s engines, as

	Mercedes hints Schumacher to stay in 2013(0) Mercedes on Tuesday gave the strongest hint yet that Michael Schumacher is set to stay with the Brackley based team beyond 2012. The seven time world champion returned from retirement with the German team in 2010, and has been widely criticised for failing to live up to the hype of his meteoric initial career. But

	Dumping Trulli ‘a no-brainer’(0) 1980 world champion Alan Jones has backed Caterham’s decision to dump Jarno Trulli. Despite having extended the Italian veteran’s contract for 2012, the former Lotus team decided at the last minute to sign the well-backed Russian Petrov. Caterham explained that Petrov brings “fresh impetus” to the team, whilst also admitting that the decision was made