It wasn't just Williams that objected. There were three teams in total. Williams was the only team to publicly state its position.

Williams may budge on the issue if Sauber is committed to the Cosworth engine.

The good news is that we have (a full) FOTA again.

Don't see why. The only way they might budge is if there is something in it for them, and I don't see the Cosworth connection being it.

Until we see cars on the grid we just have words.

Didn't Williams say though that they didn't want to accept Qadbak as 14th team as they didn't even know who they where, but now with Peter Sauber, a familiair face, they might agree

That time that Jean Todt ordered Norberto Fontana to block JV is a lot worse on the scale to me than for example if Toro Rosso were ordered to let a Red Bull by, Todt just had a commercial arrangement with Sauber yet felt he could tell its drivers what to do, Materschitz is the boss of all 4 of the Red Bull and Toro Rosso drivers so inter team orders would be more understandable

IMHO it's no more acceptable.

14 teams is too many, 14 teams somewhere like Monaco would be a logistics nightmare not to mention pitlane safety dangers, 13 teams is right, Williams are right on this one, not many pitlanes can handle 14 teams

Yeah, that's not something that would fool me.

Nope. What they said is that 14 teams is too many, but there is the added incentive that they want Petronas.

Every pitlane can easily accomodate 14 teams, even Monaco.

Common sense has prevailed and the right man, the man with his name above the door, will be back in charge!
BMW should never have stalled in the first place, the priority should have been the team and its employees, not recouping some of the losses they had incurred.

This is great news for Sauber and great news for F1... just one more hurdle now, a place on the grid!

I might be a bit of a squeeze at some tracks but surely that's worth putting up with if a couple of hundred jobs can saved.

Peter Windsor will be happy this morning as will Adrian Campos, if they want to sell their grid slot the value has just shot up

If he enters 2010 grid, will he continue on his result tally from 1993 to 2005, or will he begin with a clean sheet?

we are talkin about 13th team

remember toyota pulled out

I guess this 14th team thing emerged again after this.

This has already happened. In 1997 during the title decider at Jerez, Fontana in the Sauber-Ferrari was ordered to let Schumacher pass and then hold off Villeneuve for as long as possible.

So Sauber (allegedly a gentleman) has no problem with a bit of cheating when it benefits his engine supplier. Helping his sponsor wouldn't be much of a leap.

This development shows the boards of BMW and Toyota to be even more stupid than we thought.

BMW could surely have reached a deal with Peter Sauber quickly and easily, signed the Concorde agreement and then PS would have been responsible for the cost of downsizing the team.

Now they have wasted many weeks negotiating the failed deal and will be getting a lot less money from PS. They will also have to meet the costs of downsizing to 250 employees. Alternatively they face the publicity and cost of winding up the team or, even more embarrassing, having to pay Toyota for a grid slot they could have had for free !.

Had Toyota pulled out earlier they could have sold their grid slot for a lot of money. Now it's doubtful that anyone will pay a lot of money to buy it - including BMW.

Toyota also have the possibility of a big compensation payment to the FIA and FOM.

No wonder neither team was very successful in the sport !

If it means that Cosworth has more development money available they might have a change of heart. There is also the political situation to consider. We will have to wait and see what the political landscape looks like. If it is broadly divided along engine manufacturer lines then that may be another incentive. But I agree that Williams would not give anything up without there being a direct benefit to the team.

Interesting article, who is Joe Saward though, is he a good source, never heard of him



Great line, I can't wait to see what the BMW faithful have to say in response
I suspect there won't be many Toyota fans arguing with you... sorry, I could have put the full stop after the word fans there!

Not my source of info, so I can't really comment on that.
The above link was provided at this other topic.
You'll find more info about this source at the 2010 Silly Season topic.

Ferrari offered to provide Brawn with engines, but Ross chose Mercedes instead.

I don't see why he wouldn't be able to continue. It's the same owner, same team, same factory etc... There has just been a brake in between.

It's not like anybody thought that Brawn might even challenge for points... Ferrari or Mercedes

Well, this is what Fontana claims... are we really 100% sure about this?

Sauber are getting the complete drivetrain (engine, gearbox and I think rear suspension included) from Ferrari, which was different from Brawn who had their own gearbox (and thus rear suspension).

The full BMW design was well under way when they pulled out, so Sauber may have more work to do to mate the front end of the car to the rear (suspension and floor/diffuser).

Peter buying it back. Great news...
Wonder who his investors are..?
The original Swiss group? the American investment firm?
Wonder what the price was/is. The original offer was $80mil I believe.
We'll find out about the grid slot in 10 days when the FIA meets.
I'm encouraged by Bernie's confidence.
Come on Frank. Get on board!

Hendrick and Penske both have the resources for it. They've both accomplished all there is to accomplish in their respective disciplines of American auto racing.

What engine Sauber will run? exBMW? Cossie? Ferrari?

Ever heard about expression "Monday moring quarterback"?

If they get on grid: Ferrari engine!

Ferrari as stated by Theissen.

Perhaps FIA and Toyota could resolve theirs affair, and life could go on just as well.

Peter keep your team away from Theissen & Rampf, please!

In an interview on CNN World Sports today Jimmie Johnson said a F1 team would need around 500M$ to win the series, whereas Hendrick was operating four teams in Sprint Cup with under half of that mark. If Hendrick pours 200M$ in his core business (Nascar), I don't think he would manage to raise half of it in sponsorship to diversify his operations. F1 would be a risky investment for Hendrick anyway with no assurances of succes and no assurances of return on investment. It's all about money dude. I don't see anyway Hendrick could operate an F1 team, even under a budget cap at 100M$. Nascar is bankable in the US, F1 is not.

On the other hand, I think the opposite is feasible and would be bankable. McLaren for instance could market its brand new sportscar brand, and find 50M$ to set up a two team joint venture with an established Sprint Cup team. Imagine two Sprint Cup McLaren-Roush for instance.

About as sure as anyone can be without Todt and co. admitting it publicly.
Saubers have always rolled over for Ferrari's when using their engines. And it was pretty blatant during the race in Jerez. Brundle even said at the time that Ferrari would be sending a case of champagne to Sauber in gratitude.

The year HHF and Heidfeld refused to pull over, they promptly got replaced with two Ferrari drivers.

The FIA should simply strip Toyota of their 2010 entry as part of their punishment for pulling out. Theyre hardly going to be giving it away to another team, so theyre going to be making money at Sauber's expense.

If they can do that, then there should be nothing in the way to stop Sauber getting on the grid, providing the FIA believe they'll be a credible team. Given the startup nature of the 4 other teams and the existing BMW resources, you'd have to assume that would be a no-brainer.

Exactly he deserves it a hell of a lot more then manor or lotus etc.

That only shows that Jimmie Johnson knows nothing of F1 and talks out of his ass and that Nascar is a crappy spec-series that has cars with no technology going around in circles in the same country.

Tony George ?

Filthy rich, mate of Bernie's, plenty of time on his hands as doesn't run the IMS

Or could be Kevin Kalkhoven, billionaire and he runs a investment fund

Definitely my tip



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Kalkhoven

Kevin Oscar Newton Kalkoven, former CEO of JDS Uniphase, is an Australian venture capitalist and auto racing magnate based in Menlo Park, California. He is a partner in the Kalkhoven, Pettit, Levin and Johnson Venture capital firm (KPLJ LLC) based in Menlo Park. Also owns Cosworth

You beat me to post it.

Yeah I reckon 99% its him

Would be known to Bernie through Cosworth, is a racing fanatic, the Speed article talked of a group of investors, Kalkhoven's venture capital group is 4 guys so ticks all the boxes

Let's see how it develops, it may put an end to the Sauber-Ferrari package.

Peter Sauber back as teamowner!

Geat News indeed . Let's hope the situation with the gridslot clears fast.

250 people is enough, if they buy the whole drivetrain (they used to make their own gearbox) and as the rest of the grid is allegedly also downsizing.



Back in the day P. Sauber was really dependant on Ferrari, today he could several competitive engines for a lot less money (not for next year though). And I believe Ferrari is not occupied by people that would try to influence a customer.

Actually the gearbox was designed and manufactured in-house by BMW in Munich, so there were no gearbox designers and manufacturers in Hinwil anyway.