Peter Sauber in Malaysia

Peter Sauber, the founder and 20 per cent owner of the Hinwil based Formula One team, has this week been in Malaysia.

"In his luggage could be good news for the future," the Swiss newspaper Blick said.

We reported on Thursday that the Malaysian government, already involved with BMW-Sauber through its 35m euro per year sponsorship by the state owned oil company Petronas, might be interested in forming a national Formula One team.

Through the involvement of a Malaysian consortium, it was suggested that the bid could involve either taking over Sauber in the wake of BMW's impending withdrawal, or joining forces with Lotus, Litespeed and Mike Gascoyne in a separate start-up operation.

The new speculation is a combination of the two possibilities: a BMW-Sauber takeover with the involvement of the F3 team Litespeed, as well as the well-known F1 engineer Gascoyne and Lotus' new CEO Dany Bahar.

Coinciding with the rumours was the confirmation that Bahar, who like Peter Sauber is Swiss, has left Ferrari and will start his new role as Lotus CEO in October.

"I am looking forward to taking on the challenges as CEO of this legendary and iconic company with a peerless motor sport history," said Bahar in a statement.

"I can't wait to get my plans underway in October."

Lotus is owned by Proton, Malaysia's national car company, and Lotus' current chairman is Malaysian Dato Nadzmi Mohd Salleh.

"With Dany's track record in motor sports and Ferrari, we strongly believe that we have found the right CEO to enhance the Lotus image, brand and reputation as a world class sportscar and engineering company," he said.