New Blood Old Heart

There’s been an influx of fresh technical talent at Sauber this season, but its real problem is the year-old Ferrari motor that drives its C36. Question is, is this second hand power unit actually masking the true potential of the Swiss team’s 2017 car?

- Sam Collins

This year represents Sauber’s 25th season in Formula 1. It’s quite a landmark; indeed, only three names on the grid have a longer continuous history: Williams, McLaren and Ferrari. It is a remarkable feat for a small team from a nation where motor racing is banned.

But preparation for its 25th Formula 1 season was not straightforward for the Swiss  outfit. Throughout 2015 and 2016 it struggled financially, and found it difficult to retain technical staff . But the arrival of new owners and, interestingly, the withdrawal of Audi from the World Endurance Championship, has given the team an opportunity for a resurgence.

A few days after it was announced that Audi would not race its R18 LMP1 during 2017 Sauber announced that its tech chief Jorg Zander would join Sauber as its new technical director. ‘I started in January, so by the time I started I couldn’t really do anything in terms of the car. The first car was basically being built. All the long lead time parts had been decided and were being manufactured,’ Zander explains.

‘One of the first things I wanted to do was to look over the car, find out what had been designed and to get a bit of an up to date understanding of Formula 1,’ Zander adds. ‘I had been involved in WEC for the last six years, as the technical head of the Audi programme in 2015 and 2016. I had to re-adapt back to Formula 1. More important, though, was to understand the organisation of the team. Work out who does what, look at the configuration of the various departments and what the working practices are. I needed to find out where we lacked capacity, resource and expertise, so that was the biggest priority.’

Team building