Sauber Formula 1 chief Monisha Kaltenborn is confident that the team’s ongoing financial struggles can be resolved in the near future.
The past couple of years have seen Sauber face an uncertain future due to its ongoing financial problems, with staff facing a delay in payment earlier this year.
The team failed to attend the recent test following the Spanish Grand Prix, sparking further concerns, but Kaltenborn is hopeful that a resolution can be found soon.
“Yes, we have certain challenges and we are working very hard to overcome the situation and I’m confident that we’ll resolve it shortly,” Kaltenborn said.
“We are working on that since a while now and we also know that we need that. If you look at today’s Formula 1 environment to be strong as an independent team you need to have a strong partners.
“So we have always been open to that and now we are pursuing our chances and we hope to resolve that soon.”
Kaltenborn elaborated on the challenge facing Sauber at the moment, saying how F1 has become more difficult for independent teams in recent years.
“I think Formula 1 has changed a lot,” she said.
“If you look at the times when Peter Sauber was team principal and I wouldn’t take the time when he returned as team principal in 2010 to the sport, but if I look at the time before, it was a very different sport and a very different kind of business with a very different financial set-up and sporting set-up.
“So I don’t think you can really compare the times. Challenges for private teams like ours have become bigger, year-by-year, particularly also due to the rule changes which have made things in the last few years far more expensive, if you look at the power train itself but also with regard to the distribution of income.
“There was a time when teams were not getting 50 per cent but even less, but yet the economic environment was much better, where you could get far more sponsors.
“So I don’t think it’s really that easy to compare the times, it doesn’t just have to do with people or the situation within the team, but the overall surroundings we were in.”
