Sauber could extend with Ferrari and Caterham with Renault

Facing financial difficulties this season, the Sauber team has finally found Russian partners to provide fresh funds and, it seems, reimburse Ferrari, which supplies them with engines but was apparently facing payment defaults.

This has not, however, dampened Ferrari’s desire to continue its association with the Swiss team, as Stefano Domenicali told the Russian site F1news.ru: « As you know, we want to continue supplying our engines to Sauber, so I hope we can very soon settle all the details. »

The Maranello team could even take advantage of its home Grand Prix at Monza in just over a week to officially supply 1.6L Turbo V6 engines to Sauber, at least that’s what the director of Scuderia Ferrari hopes for.

Monisha Kaltenborn, the head of the Sauber team, thinks an announcement is possible at Monza as well and confirms that the Swiss team wishes to continue with Ferrari: « Yes. There is no problem in our discussions, and we hope that in the near future we will reach an agreement. We have never considered other options [than Ferrari], and do not plan to do so. »

The first woman to lead a Formula 1 team also stated that the partnership with Ferrari might even go beyond the power unit in the future: « We will see if it makes sense. We have worked closely together in the past, and I think both parties are ready [to do it again]. We know each other well and cooperate perfectly, so we will see how things develop. »

Besides Sauber, two other teams still have not officially announced the name of their engine supplier for the 2014 season: Lotus and Caterham. However, for the latter, an extension with Renault seems likely, and an announcement could be made in a few weeks during the Singapore Grand Prix, as stated by the director of the green and yellow team, Cyril Abiteboul, to Toilef1.