Frédéric Vasseur: “Sauber wants to fight with Force India or Williams”

Frederic Vasseur made his first appearance as Sauber Team Principal F1 Team at the Hungarian Grand Prix, two weeks after being made official as a replacement for Monisha Kaltenborn. The Frenchman does not hide his ambitions for the team in conjunction with Longbow Finance, the team's majority sponsor.

« We have no ambition to beat Mercedes et Ferrari in the short or medium term, explains Vasseur realistically, but that of joining as quickly as possible private teams like Force India or Williams, to make podiums at the tip of the middle of the grid. This model holds up. »

One of the first decisions taken by the founder of ART GP was to break the contract in principle with Honda for the 2018 season and to extend the partnership with Ferrari with an engine that will follow developments, unlike this year where Sauber is suffering with a 2016 configuration engine with no possible improvement.

« There was also in the balance our long-lasting relationship with Ferrari which, moreover, was ready to provide us with an engine from the year 2018. For me it was a condition sine qua non, because I never saw the point in racing with equipment from the year before. »

Despite the 5 points collected by Pascal Wehrlein at the Spanish and Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Sauber is relegated to the bottom of the constructors' championship after the performance of the McLaren-Honda in Hungary. 

Find the entire interview with Frédéric Vasseur, carried out by our special correspondents at the Hungaroring, in issue 2125 of AUTOhebdo, available in digital version and on newsstands.