Why Sauber's revival depends on Ferrari

Sauber has dealt with adversity before. When BMW pulled out at the end of the 2009 Formula 1 season, team founder Peter Sauber swept in to save his team. Then when the outfit was on the brink of financial collapse midway through last year, it was financial investment firm Longbow Finance that emerged as the saviour.

Longbow promised stability and that was the case until the abrupt departure of team principal Monisha Kaltenborn, part of Sauber since 2000, was announced in June. Shortly afterwards, Sauber was temporarily without an engine for next year after deciding to axe its deal with Honda - something Kaltenborn had put together.

The Swiss team's future looked uncertain once more. But after several weeks of negotiations, chairman Pascal Picci installed former Renault team boss Frederic Vasseur in the hot seat. He also agreed a deal with long-term partner Ferrari to continue using its engines - only next year, they will be current, rather than year-old, specification.

So, is this finally the start of a bold new era for Sauber, F1's fifth oldest team having first appeared in the 1993 South African Grand Prix? Or is it just another short-term reprieve?

Vasseur has an impressive racing record and was the man Longbow wanted. His ART Grand Prix team, co-owned with Nicolas Todt and formed from Vasseur's original ASM operation, has won a huge array of titles across junior single-seater racing. Vasseur never got close to taking the team into F1, so made his own F1 debut as an employee, running Renault's Enstone operation during a period of rebuilding after the French manufacturer purchased Lotus to revive its works team.

He departed Renault at the end of the season, amid an apparent clash of philosophies with managing director Cyril Abiteboul, but in that short space of time, sources praised Vasseur's management and reorganisation of the team and ability to motivate staff and improve the atmosphere.

"You have to explain to everybody what the project is, where we want to go, how we can achieve our goals, what the resources are and where we want to increase the size of the department," Vasseur tells Autosport. "If you have a clear project, everybody will follow."

While Longbow is not prepared to throw piles of money at the Sauber project, the owner wants a return on its investment and is prepared to provide funding in-line with its long-term plan - the first step of which involves getting the team back into the midfield pack with a chance of scoring points. Vasseur believes that pragmatic approach is what is required to ensure this project works.

"The most important thing is we need to have the financial resources linking to the expectation," says Vasseur. "We want to succeed but we need to have a clear roadmap, budget and human resources for this.

"This is quite clear for Longbow. They know what they want to achieve and they will be able to give the team, the structure and all the resources to succeed."

When Vasseur stepped in at Renault, the team had just begun restructuring on its return to grand prix racing as a manufacturer entry. It had bought a Lotus operation that had been working on a shoestring for several months with its staffing having been depleted. While Sauber doesn't have the backing of a manufacturer, it does require a similar restructure - something that Vasseur knows from experience will take time.

"The situation is a bit different but there are some similarities because Lotus had to face through financial difficulties in the past," he says. "At Renault we did some good recruitment from the beginning, but some didn't join until the end of '16 while some are only joining the team just now. They are improving quite fast, but it's taken one-and-a-half years.

"We have to do it step by step. We will increase the size and provide the resources for each of the problem areas. Compared to other teams, in terms of the number of engineers, we have to grow up. We have a lot of very competitive engineers in the team, but we need reinforce each department."

Longbow appears to have agreed to give Vasseur the time he needs to succeed. It cancelled the deal with Honda, and the significant investment and a technical partnership that came with it, in favour of an arrangement that was not financially lucrative but promised an engine that would allow Sauber to compete straight away.

It's clear then that Longbow wants success quickly but there is an understanding that a transformation will not happen overnight. Mercedes and Red Bull are examples of that. Though Mercedes took over a world championship-winning team in the shape of Brawn GP, there was a relatively small crew left following Honda's departure. Mercedes took time to invest in the infrastructure and manpower to build a robust operation.

Four difficult seasons ensued but the hard work continued, with backing from the top, and success followed through total domination of F1 from 2014-16. Red Bull took five years to win its first world championship, having taken over Jaguar. It took time and funds to get there.

"[The plan for the future] was a part of the long discussion I had with Longbow," says Vasseur. "You need a month to understand the situation then several months to recruit. Then it will be several months before those guys join the team because they will have contracts. Nobody can be faster than this. But if the situation is clear for everybody, and I think it is, we can work together."

Sauber is no ordinary team. It is one of only three on the grid not to have its base in the United Kingdom. That makes recruitment tricky, but it has also contributed to Sauber creating a family rather than just a workforce.

The motivation to succeed there is strong. The staff have an attachment to the team. It's more than just a job. You could see that when the team kept working month after month last year despite not knowing when or if their salaries would be paid so they could feed their families and pay their bills. For Vasseur, that loyalty will play a key role in Sauber's resurrection.

"The team is still here, the guys stay loyal to the team," says Vasseur, whose new team dropped to the bottom of the constructors' championship when McLaren's double-points finish in Hungary moved it up to ninth. "They are still motivated, they are still doing training sessions for the pitstops and pushing.

"Now we must look at the light at the end of the tunnel. What they have gone through these last few months is a tough situation. If you show them the light at the end they will push like hell.

"Some of the staff have been with the team for more than 20 years. That team spirit is important for the future. I'll always work like this. There are some guys who have worked for me for 25 years. I started in 1991 and I have some mechanics who have lasted there for 26 years. If you want to get team spirit, you need to have some attachment levels. That is something we have here."

Vasseur's appointment was announced 21 days after the confirmation of Kaltenborn's departure. During that time, Vasseur held multiple talks with Longbow about the role of team principal. First contact was made back in May, and though that was regarding a new, additional role in the team, it demonstrates how long the opportunity to move to Hinwil has been on Vasseur's radar.

He took his time because he wanted to be sure it was a project in which he could work. When he explained his reasons for leaving Renault, Vasseur said at the time: "There was too much different vision in the management of the team, so at this stage it makes sense for me to leave. If you want to perform in F1, you need to have one leader in the team and one single way. If you have two different visions, then the result is that the work inside the team is slow."

It appears Longbow has granted him that 'one leader' status.

Vasseur said the first thing he wanted to get sorted on joining was the engine. That was done relatively swiftly, with Sauber bosses believed to have contacted Ferrari in Austria to see if a fresh deal was possible. Once Sauber had extricated itself from the Honda agreement, discussions with Ferrari were completed very quickly, with the final contracts understood to have been signed during the Hungarian GP weekend.

Sources suggest there is an understanding that the collaboration will extend beyond its technical tie-up with engine and gearbox.

Through ART, Vasseur has worked with the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Valtteri Bottas, Nico Rosberg, Nico Hulkenberg, Jules Bianchi and Stoffel Vandoorne. The team has essentially acted as a graduate school for F1. Considering the new deal, Sauber is set to become a Ferrari junior team of sorts.

Sauber has already had a close relationship with Ferrari that has involved it running some of its proteges. It gave former Ferrari junior Raffaele Marciello mileage in grand prix practice sessions and used Ferrari reserve Antonio Giovinazzi when Pascal Wehrlein was injured earlier this year.

There is scope for a great cooperation, particularly as Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne is keen to find a place in F1 for runaway Formula 2 leader Charles Leclerc and Giovinazzi.

Vasseur says drivers were not part of the engine deal.

"We had to close the deal quite quickly," he says. "I think it would be a mistake to mix the drivers into the discussion. We will have that discussion in the next few weeks."

But did he get the sense Ferrari wanted to place one of its young drivers with Sauber?

"You have to ask the question to Maurizio [Arrivabene], and as a team it would make sense to have someone like Leclerc or other young drivers."

Taking Leclerc and forging a tighter bond with Ferrari would work well. Haas has shown how such a close relationship can prosper. Toro Rosso's use of Red Bull junior drivers is a good example, too.

If Vasseur can morph Sauber into an efficient 'Ferrari B team' and lift it back into the midfield to compete with Haas and Toro Rosso in the next few years, that would be a job well done.