Breaking news

Formula 1

Sauber: "Spiral" was crucial to getting Raikkonen

Sauber's "spiral" of good news over the last year in Formula 1 was key to giving Kimi Raikkonen the motivation to join the team, reckons Frederic Vasseur.

Scott Mitchell

Edited: Jan 2, 2019, 7:36 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Kimi Raikkonen, Sauber C37

In the summer of 2017 Sauber cancelled a planned Honda engine deal and inked a new arrangement with Ferrari that gave it the use of a latest-specification engine after spending that season with a year-old unit.

Since then, it earned a title partnership with Alfa Romeo, fielded Ferrari protege Charles Leclerc in his rookie season and made major staff hires including Ferrari man Simone Resta as technical director and Audi aerodynamicist Jan Monchaux.

Sauber dovetailed this off-track progression with significant improvement on-track and snapped up 2007 world champion Raikkonen on a two-year deal once the Finn learned he would be replaced at Ferrari by Leclerc.

Team principal Vasseur said earlier in 2018 that Sauber's Alfa deal had made it much more attractive and that signing Raikkonen had a similar motivational impact.

He told Motorsport.com that the sequence of positive events created an atmosphere that made Sauber attractive to Raikkonen, who will partner Antonio Giovinazzi in an all-new line-up.

"We had Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, we had Charles joining the team," said Vasseur. "We took Jan Monchaux, Simone Resta, brought them into the factory.

"Each week we had good news, it's like a spiral. The motivation is there, the mood is huge compared to last year, the team spirit."

Vasseur said the "appetite for the team was completely different for recruitment and for sponsors" after its "crucial" Alfa Romeo partnership was announced.

"For me, drivers are the same," Vasseur added. "Good engineers you can motivate with the salary but they love racing and they want to get results.

"We're in a much better position to recruit, to have top guys in every single department. I have the feeling that we're really attractive as a project.

"Drivers are the same story. Kimi knows it will be difficult for us to better than P7 without an accident [for bigger teams].

"The motivation can come from somewhere else. The fact we're improving, we're growing up, we're building something – I think it's a huge feeling for all the team members, including drivers."

Vasseur said Sauber's recruitment plan was not yet finished as it bids to follow up on a strong 2018 by becoming a season-long top-10 threat.

He claimed that the results in 2018 were only the "first results" of its staffing push.

"We recruited a lot since last year to improve on every single part of the company and it's paying off," he said.

"When we started to work at the end of '17, people joined at the beginning of '18 and some of them were working on the '18 car.

"Some of them switched directly to next year's car. It's the first results of this recruitment. I hope it will get more and more."

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Hamilton's off-track endeavours taught Brawn "a lesson"

Next article Leclerc needs to be "good in the head" to succeed at Ferrari

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Ducati: “Marc Marquez has asked for guarantees to go to Qatar, while others stay silent”

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Australian GP

43 min

Ducati: “Marc Marquez has asked for guarantees to go to Qatar, while others stay silent”

Red Bull reveals when 'silly' problems affecting Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar can be fixed

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

1 h

Red Bull reveals when 'silly' problems affecting Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar can be fixed

Manthey acknowledges IMSA to be "tougher than expected" despite two wins

IMSA

IMSA IMSA 13 h

Manthey acknowledges IMSA to be "tougher than expected" despite two wins

How a philosophy shift brought BMW to new heights in 2026

IMSA

IMSA IMSA 13 h

How a philosophy shift brought BMW to new heights in 2026

Feature

Discover prime content

A strategic masterclass: How Kimi Antonelli put himself on the cusp of F1 title at the US GP

Formula 1

United States GP

By Jake Boxall-Legge

A strategic masterclass: How Kimi Antonelli put himself on the cusp of F1 title at the US GP

How Verstappen and Antonelli were both “surprised” in United States GP qualifying

Formula 1

United States GP

By Stuart Codling

How Verstappen and Antonelli were both “surprised” in United States GP qualifying

What we learned from Friday practice at the 2026 United States GP

Formula 1

United States GP

By Jake Boxall-Legge

What we learned from Friday practice at the 2026 United States GP

Max Verstappen’s words explained: Why Red Bull’s turnaround is so different this time

Formula 1

United States GP

By Ronald Vording

Max Verstappen’s words explained: Why Red Bull’s turnaround is so different this time

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts