Sauber has lost its technical director, James Key, just weeks before the start of the new F1 season. The Englishman made a similar unexpected move before, announcing in late February 2010 that he was leaving Force India to take up the position at Sauber. When he started work there, after a short gardening leave, he helped to stabilise the Swiss team after a start to the season riddled with reliability and performance problems. Sauber was struggling to adjust from being a manufacturer backed team under BMW to being a privateer again. In both the last two seasons Sauber scored 44 More…

Kamui Kobayashi has won many fans in his brief F1 career to date for his swashbuckling style; not just his signature bold overtaking moves, but also his defensive driving, which has also been very effective. I’ll put my hands up and admit I love Kobayashi as a racer, he’s top quality entertainment and I love his spirit in a car, which reminds me a little bit of Jean Alesi. Alesi made a big impression in a midfield Tyrrell car and ended up in a Ferrari, something which many fans would like to see happen with Kobayashi. It would be an More…

Sergio Perez has been quietly effective in his rookie season in F1, doing enough to ensure that the team took up the second year of his contract. Looking closely at it, he has done rather better than that. He’s outqualified his team mate Kamui Kobayashi on five occasions of the nine that they have been racing together this season, he’s scored points in two races and in only two of his races has he finished lower than the position he started in. Those are pretty reasonable figures for a rookie in F1, but he will want to move forward from More…

The Sauber team has announced that it will run the same drivers next season; Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez. It’s a logical decision and one made with Sauber on the front foot, as the Mexican connection with telecoms billionaire Carlos Slim has brought financial stability to one of F1′s most efficiently run teams. But they’ve got more than a pay driver in Perez; “Sergio has achieved more than one could expect from a rookie,” said Sauber. “From the very first race he proved that he is capable of driving not only fast but consistently as well. And after the accident More…

Here is the video highlights edit of Lewis Hamilton and Kamui Kobayashi’s appearance at the FOTA Fans Forum UK event at McLaren. Fans wanted to know all about the pair’s prowess at overtaking and the two drivers did not disappoint. “What does it feel like to actually pull off a fantastic overtaking manoeuvre?”, Hamilton was asked. His reply: “It’s exhilarating. It’s probably the most exciting part of the race, when you’re not too fast compared to the guy in front. You’re just creeping up on him and looking to see where he’s weaker so that you can attack next time More…

FOTA Fans’ Forum, UK. Part 2: Drivers by James Allen on F1 You can listen to all of the audio from this afternoon’s FOTA Fans’ Forum discussion involving Lewis Hamilton and Kamui Kobayashi on the SoundCloud link above. Predictably, fans’ questions largely revolved around their prowess in overtaking. Although one fan asked Hamilton what question he would ask Ayrton Senna if he had the chance. “I’d ask him how he managed to qualify a second ahead of the rest in Monaco that time,” said Hamilton. Both drivers agreed that of the three aids to overtaking in F1 today, KERS tyres More…

Peter Sauber, F1′s perennial survivor, has succeeded in bringing the world’s richest man on board and giving his team a platform to build for the future after the shock failure of the BMW Sauber project. Carlos Slim, whose Telmex company is a global telecoms giant, has come on board as a partner of the Sauber team and will have “significant” branding on the car. Telmex will fund the drive of 20 year old Mexican Sergio Perez in the team next year. The GP2 star will partner Kamui Kobayashi in an exciting, if inexperienced line up. They also have 19 year More…

Toyota’s adventure in F1 is now well and truly over as the FIA today granted Peter Sauber the 13th slot on the grid – unlucky for some. A statement issued by the FIA this evening said, “The FIA has written to inform BMW Sauber AG that their application for an entry in the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship has been successful.” “Subject to their signing the Concorde Agreement, BMW Sauber will be awarded the 13th entry in the Championship, taking the place of the departing Toyota team. “The FIA has worked closely with the Commercial Rights Holder and the More…

Peter Sauber has bought back his team from BMW and it will race next season as Sauber with Ferrari engines. The deal under which Qadbak, the mysterious Swiss Arab investment vehicle was to acquire the team, is off. The contract is subject to the team being granted a place on the F1 grid, but as Toyota has withdrawn and Sauber has an unblemished record in F1 and the support of the other teams, particularly Ferrari, the team is hoping that the F1 commission and the World Council should give them the nod at a series of meetings in early December More…