Sauber F1

Ex Renault boss Frederic Vasseur to head Sauber F1

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If paddock rumours are correct we expect to see official statements from Sauber in the coming hours or days following the Azerbaijan Grand Prix announcing he is to head up the Sauber F1 team.

Some say the ex Renault F1 boss fell on his own sword in light of the under performing engine used by the Red Bull cars over the last few years that suffered with similar technological issues currently facing McLaren and the ill fated power unit.

Sauber – Baku, will be a challenge for car set up for all teams

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After a challenging weekend in Montreal, the Sauber F1 Team is heading out to Azerbaijan for the 8th round of this year′s Formula 1 World Championship. It is the second time that the Grand Prix will be hosted at Baku City Circuit after its debut in 2016 so data and track time experience could prove to be a puzzle for everyone.

Sauber NEED to “understand tyre issues” for Azerbaijan

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Sauber have come away from the Canadian GP in a less than jubilant mood with concerns over tyre use and management that management will need to get to grips with before the low grip surface in Azerbaijan is tackled. Feelings from the Sauber team camp in Canada were not as optimistic as they have been. … Read more

Launch Dates Revealed: Williams and Sauber

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TheJudge13 contributor, Dane Hansen, guides you through what is expected to be one of the most anticipated times of the F1 calendar – Launch Season. This is the second post of a staggered series which will list launch dates and more. Williams – 22 February What to Expect: Often said to be the renaissance of … Read more

#F1 Daily News and Comment: Wednesday, 15th April 2015

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UPDATED GMT:11:00 A Daily Round up of Formula One news, inside whispers, opinion and comment. Today, Renault – First leads on troublesome engine parts Italian Moderator sacked for insulting Fernando Alonso Causa Sauber Has W06 update cured Mercedes Achilles heel? FIA Press Conferences Bahrain 2015 Renault – First leads on troublesome engine parts Daniil Kvyat’s … Read more

#F1 Features: Sauber’s options

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The Australian Supreme Court in Victoria has not been kind to Sauber, then again it has not been particularly unkind. However, the attitude of the Judges towards the representations made by the Swiss team’s lawyers has been firm and dismissive of their delaying tactics and weak arguments for failing to fulfill the contract with Giedo … Read more

Barcelona Final Test – Day 4 Morning Story

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Lauda Watch: On the F1 show. He reckons Lewis and Nico are a better pairing than Webber and Vettel – thoughts TJ13 viewers?. Also according to Niki, Ross has changed his name from Brawn to Brown??? SKY: Good to see Anthony Davidson back on the screen. He really is quite excellent and Natalie Pinkerton appears to … Read more

F1 Forensics: Slats and Vortex Generators

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F1 Forensics is brought to thejudge13 readers in partnership with SomersF1, Like most of us, Matthew Somerfield has a day job and his is being the manager of a car & van rental company in the Isle of Wight.

His passion is to try and bring us non-techies closer to F1 by bridging the gap between the full blown engineering publications and the simplicity of much that is provided by TV.

Ask Somers anything you want in the comments section. He’s part of the crew now and hang’s out here regularly.

And now over to Somers…

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Pre Race Review Brazil 2012: Red Bull, “Business as usual” – nonesense.

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Last race decider – again

Here we are again. A championship decider showdown in Interlagos once again. 2007,08 and 09 were the last 3 times the title was decided here because in 2010 the final race was in Abu Dhabi and in 2011 we had Sebastian and Red Bull doing a Michael and Ferrari impression and running away with the titles long before the seasons finale.

Interlagos is like Spa, a place where the weather is highly erratic. Unlike Spa, it is often much more violent and staccato in the way it can punctuate a session and be done in a very short while. A good example of this was qualifying yesterday when before the session it when very dark – rained – and by the end of the session bright sunshine was re-instated.

For all Vetell’s words of assurance that the approach to this weekend is the same as any other, I’m not buying it. Alonso has clearly had nothing to lose for a while and his driving has demonstrated this. We all expected levels of grip for the race Austin to be similar to ice racing, and many expected a huge turn 1 incident with the cars also running on cold tyres. Yet Alonso chose to go around the outside, the most dangerous place to  bring there were cars sliding everywhere.

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Why Sauber will fall back in 2013

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Not a lot to choose between them

The mid table teams can yo-yo around quite a lot, and I’ve heard many F1 drivers in retirement rue various decisions made to switch teams. Last year Force India finished the season on 69 points and Sauber with just over half as many points on 44. Here is the final table for 2011 and where we are in 2012 right now.

Final Table 2011 3 races to go 2012
1 Red Bull 650 1 Red Bull 407
2 McLaren 497 2 Ferrari 316
3 Ferrari 3
75		 3 McLaren 306
4 Mercedes 165 4 Lotus 263
5 Lotus 73 5 Mercedes 136
6 Force India 69 6 Sauber 116
7 Sauber 44 7 Force India 93
8 Torro Rosso 41 8 Williams 59
9 Williams 5 9 Torro Rosso 21

Quite an interesting read. Although the season is not yet finished there could be a switch between McLaren and Ferrari, but based on the past several races it’s unlikely the others will change. Having said that Mercedes are not developing the car at all and given a couple of very strong results from Sauber they could yet overtake them.

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