How bad is the Sauber mess?

A large group of people gathered outside the Sauber hospitality unit in the Melbourne paddock on Friday morning. And every time the doors swung open, the assembled media and photographers jostled for position, desperate to get a peek inside.

It's not often that Sauber attracts this kind of attention. But the Swiss team was the only story in town. All anyone wanted to talk about over breakfast was the mess that Sauber had got itself into with three drivers under contract - and only two seats to fill.

With only a few hours to go until first practice, who would be driving its cars? Would Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson, named on the entry list as the team's race drivers, head out in the blue-and-yellow C34?

Van der Garde (left) couldn't get into the paddock this morning © XPB

Or would Giedo van der Garde be in the car, having won his court case against the team? It was a ridiculous scenario at this stage of the weekend.

The Australian courts ruled that the Dutchman, who was Sauber's reserve driver in 2014, had a valid contract to race for the team in 2015, despite Nasr and Ericsson also having deals. So van der Garde rocked up at Albert Park on Friday, all smiles, bound for the Sauber garage.

Only he couldn't get into the paddock as his pass didn't operate the swipe gates. After some uncomfortable loitering and small talk with his people, the Dutchman was eventually allowed in, strolling towards Sauber with a trail of photographers and camera crews tracking his every move.

He disappeared into the team's garage and later emerged wearing Ericsson's overalls, with some suggesting he was having a seat-fitting ready to get in the car. It would make sense that he had Ericsson's overalls on to carry out the fitting as the two drivers are of similar build. But van der Garde then changed back into his civvies and disappeared down the paddock.

The frenzy showed no signs of fizzling out, mind. At Sauber, team principal Monisha Kaltenborn made an appearance. In went the microphones, desperate for a comment, but with no success. A few minutes later, Kaltenborn was back out once more, but she wisely stuck to not making any comment.

As the clock ticked down to first practice, it was Nasr and Ericsson who headed to the Sauber garage. But when the green light flickered on at the end of the pit-lane, neither made an appearance, and that remained the case for the whole session. The paddock chatter intensified.

Sauber didn't send its cars out in first practice on Friday morning © LAT

Meanwhile, across the city, Sauber's and van der Garde's lawyers found themselves in the familiar surroundings of Court 15 at the Supreme Court of Victoria.

Sauber had been summoned after van der Garde's legal team called for Kaltenborn to be "punished" for being in contempt of court (for not putting van der Garde in the car) with a prison sentence or fine. They also wanted the court to agree to have Sauber's assets in Australia seized.

The hearing was delayed by an hour, as both parties asked for more time, and when the new start time came about, Justice Clyde Croft was kept waiting by one of Sauber's legal team, who rushed in around 10 minutes late.

Van der Garde's legal team presented their case and then handed over to Sauber's lawyers, who said their preparations were hampered by the fact they couldn't get sufficient access to Sauber team manager Beat Zehnder because he was involved with practice at the track. To cut a long story short, they wanted more time.

That didn't go down too well with the judge, who said he "didn't want to sit here all night" and he then suggested the hearing be adjourned until next week - after the race - with an interim order put in place.

But after a short recess, there was a glimmer of hope that the saga was at last coming to an end when both parties made a joint request for an adjournment until Saturday following "constructive discussions" which they expected to continue into the evening.

While the hearing was taking place, Kaltenborn, due to take part in the FIA press conference later in the afternoon, left the paddock during second practice - when both Saubers did eventually hit the track - and that sent the rumour mill crazy.

Some suggested she was heading to court while others went further and said she was fleeing the country.

Neither claim proved to be the case and she later appeared in front of the media, half-an-hour after the end of practice. After a day of Sauber repeatedly refusing to comment, and Kaltenborn doing the same when caught in the paddock, the team principal was forced to face her journalistic demons.

"Well, that's a topic I can't say anything about," she said when posed the first question on the topic. "Any questions about that, I will not be able to answer."

Kaltenborn had to face the media in the FIA press conference © XPB

Not that this stopped anyone trying. Three times, Kaltenborn was quizzed on her suitability to run the team, but every time she dead-batted the question. Late on, she was even asked whether she had considered falling on her own sword.

"I have not considered that," she said, although the idea must have been tempting for no other reason that it would stop the constant questions about her position.

And so the wait for a resolution goes on. Sauber clearly do not want to run van der Garde. And it's hard to see why van der Garde would want to get behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car run by a team who don't want him there.

Amid the prospect of a return to court on a Saturday, Justice Clyde Croft ended Friday's hearing by urging both legal teams to have "sensible" discussions to come to an agreement.

Both counsels said they would notify him of any developments throughout the evening - raising the prospect that a fourth successive court appearance may not be necessary after all.

The judge said he would give both counsels his associate's number - via business card rather than reading out the digits because the hearing was being broadcast internationally - which drew giggles from the courtroom.

Those in attendance were probably secretly hoping both parties do come to a resolution overnight so they could have the first day of the weekend to themselves and Formula 1 can get back to the racing.