Sauber has announced that it is extending the contracts of Marcus Ericsson in 2016. The news means that rumours of Nasr going to Williams can be discounted.
“This early signing shows that the drivers and the team are sure they are heading in the right direction,” said team boss Monisha Kaltenborn.”We have full confidence in the talents and skills of Marcus and Felipe. Both have shown solid performances, gained experience and learnt quickly. We enjoy having them in the team and they give it a positive boost.”
joeblogsf1 
Given their Airline style overbooking policy when can we expect to hear the rest of their driver line up Joe?
Am I allowed to be cynical and say “Well, lets see how many more drivers they sign for next season!”?
I read that Nasr might be taking his millions back to Williams in place of Bottas. Who’s your tip for the Williams seat then Joe, assuming Bottas really is off to the red cars?
Personally I’d like to see Button in there, but I’m an old sentimentalist…
We’ll see
Well considering Sauber’s recent history of honouring driver contracts, I take this press release as a statement of intend rather than something that’s written in stone …
It may also be a way for Sauber to announce to the rest of the paddock that it will consider offers to release one of their drivers.
This may sound cynical, but I’m still very disappointed of the team’s recent conduct. Sauber has a lot of work to do to regain my respect.
Great news for two good, solid youngsters bringing and appreciating stability.
Good for the team to hopefully avoid unnecessary payments in messes like the one with von den Gharde and the more gentlemanish Suttiel!
Since when was stabbing someone in the neck with a champagne glass “gentlemanish”
I guess it means all sponsor payments are confirmed and coming then. Do you think the reason for the announcement is to avoid any uncertainty over Nasr?
Are Sauber out of the woods now after last years fiasco?
And there was I hoping for a commentator’s nightmare with both Felipes driving for the Oxfordshire team.
I remember Brundle and Blundell in Brabhams 🙂
And there was also Martin Blundle in F1 around the same time, if my memory serves me well. 🙂
I think you may be confused
Ah yes, that one was a real challenge for commentators from the Far East
Good news for Jenson?
‘The news means that rumours of Nasr going to Williams can be discounted.’
[insert comment about sauber’s recent history of respecting driver contracts here]
Wow, this soon in the year and sauber have signed half of their 2016 line up already ….
Wonder how many drivers they will give contracts to for next year :).
Funny. Didn’t they sign Van dar Garde about this time last year?
They did, but they never announced him. Which is why they could deny any involvement for so long. Giedo played the game well though, by just continuing to show up for his test runs, even though the team had already shown no intent of running him by september. That way they couldn’t catch him for refusal to work.
Maybe they figured that withholding an announcement wouldn’t make any difference, so they decided to go public straight away. Hopefully this will also stop them from making fools out of themselves again later on.
I have to say that the recent guido gate has left me with some skeptic feelings towards Sauber and contracts. However Felipe does a decent job from were I stand. However I do wonder if Sauber will ever get to a point that they can hire at least one driver based on talent not budget.
Sauber have resorted to pay drivers, or drivers who brought backing from a major manufacturer, for a number of years: consider Wendlinger in the early 1990’s (who was connected with the Mercedes-Ilmor deal), Pedro Diniz or Felipe Massa (at a time when Ferrari were effectively paying Sauber to train Felipe in return for engines) as just a few examples.
It is called survival
I was shocked when Sauber “sacked” Giedo van der Garde. I did not expect Sauber to treat an employee or an ex-employee in such a way.
It was about the money. Sauber needed more money than Giedo van der Garde could attract, so the team signed up a driver with a bigger sponsorship package.
That’s understandable. Sauber needed money, so they signed a driver contract for money, but why did they treat van der Garde badly.
But, Sauber? Of all of the teams, why aren’t they honest and truthful?
Do you think you know the full story?
They should have signed the special one; Jose Mourinho.
(there is a connection…)
I cannot be the only person getting tired of all these “jokes” about Sauber and van der Garde. Whatever happened it certainly was neither Ericsson’s or Nasr’s fault. Just leave it; van der Garde certainly did.
The story has yet to be told fairly
Hi Joe, when will the Sauber / GVDG story be told fairly? Is it another story we will have to wait till the people involved have shuffled off this mortal coil?
We will see. I think it will come out one day
I’m curious to what you mean? It was all played out in open and everyone has had their chance to explain what happened.
No, they did not
Nor is it anything new for many other F1 teams. People often have short and selective memories.
The modern day peanut gallery unfortunately now have far more tools at their disposal to let their ‘opinions’ known…
The “Positive Boost” is the €15-20 million sponsorship money that both drivers bring in every year.
I always thought Nasr had ability as well as sponsors but Ericsson has surprised me this year, doing what appears to be a decent job after I had completely written him off last year.
Not another year with Ericsson
Just one driver per seat? Boooring
will be nice to see Jenson on a two year deal, 2017 world champ :-0)
OK then drivers sorted for next year….unless there is another cashflow crisis….
Is there a pre-break “Aside with Joe” on the horizon? Surely there is much to chat about… Looking forward to it!
Did one on Wednesday
Thank you! Really enjoy the podcasts.
Seems like they may know that Kimi is staying put and therefore so are Bottas and Button.
I don’t think Kimi is staying. But whether it is Bottas is still to be revealed. Keep an eye open too for Hulkenberg and Grosjean…
What do you reckon are the chances for Hulkenberg to Ferrari? I really do think it’s time he is given his chance. Keeping my fingers crossed for it.
Joe, do you think Hulkenberg would be a good #2 driver? He doesn’t seem the type that would be a #2 to anyone.
Joe, given the couple of Middle Eastern grand prix and the oil wealth in the region, are there any signs of promising Middle Eastern drivers coming through the feeder ranks? It’d be nice to think that a decade of Bahrain trip was developing motorsport in the region.
Not that one would notice
I do not get the Ericsson-hate so common on the web. He drove a Caterham last year – and scored the team’s best result with an 11th place. Who ever had the chance to impress greatly in a Caterham ? But certainly his last three races in Singapore, Japan and Russia showed that there is something to build on there – provided that you know what to look for, and that you do so with an open mind.
Yay for Ericsson! Now lets hope Magnussen gets back and that Kimi stays put and it’s a three strike kind of thing for Scandinavia (Bottas is already promoted to a sure thing)!
/swede
Voyager, Finland is not part of Scandinavia 😉
A little bit out of the Thema, but do you think that Renault will come as a factory team in 2016 (or 2017)?
They have to decide