The conundrum facing Ferrari's planned 'B team'

Unless something extraordinary happens, Sauber will end this season 10th in the constructors' championship for the third time in four years. It is comfortably the worst period in its F1 history, having never finished as low as 10th before 2014.

So when Frederic Vasseur stepped in to take over the running of F1's fifth oldest team from Monisha Kaltenborn earlier this year, he knew change was needed - and quickly. Sauber could not go on like this.

His first act was to dissolve the planned arrangement with Honda, and the significant investment and technical partnership that came with it. Given Honda's unstable relationship with McLaren, Vasseur was concerned the Japanese manufacturer could quit, leaving Sauber in the lurch. He signed a new deal with Ferrari, despite the relationship having become strained in the closing years of Kaltenborn's reign.

This deal was different, though. It offered the latest-specification engine, rather than the year-old unit it has run this year, plus the gearbox and the chance to increase its collaboration both in terms of technology and drivers. The new management in place at Sauber had opened the way for a fresh start.

Vasseur knew this season was a lost cause, but the team cannot afford another year of struggle in 2018. The outfit's new owners, Longbow Finance, will not tolerate it, although neither are they keen to throw piles of money at the project to turn things around.

So Vasseur realised he might have to explore the option of using strategies that have worked for the likes of Force India and Haas. In order to move up from the tail of the grid, Force India agreed a deal with McLaren to use its gearbox in 2009 and extended that to the transmission in 2011. The team is now on course to finish fourth in the constructors' championship for the second year in a row.

When Haas came into F1, it outsourced the chassis to Dallara and took all non-listed parts from Ferrari, as well as the latest specification engine. Immediately, it was on the pace and contending in the midfield.

Vasseur knows Sauber could benefit from similar assistance. But he has a conundrum. The team already has a high-end facility in Switzerland, complete with an impressive wind tunnel and experienced staff capable of producing a car in-house.

Accepting parts from Ferrari would be a big step. It would mean areas of that facility will be underutilised or no longer required. He must weigh that against the possibility that taking parts from Ferrari could be a quicker way to return to the midfield, which will keep the owners happy and make the team more attractive to sponsors and other drivers.

"I don't care about the terms 'B team' or junior team. I want to be a proper team. Do you consider Force India a Mercedes junior team? Everyone is pushing like hell"
Sauber team principal Frederic Vasseur

"It is not yet fully fixed but the collaboration will be extended compared to the current season," Vasseur tells Autosport. "We will have the new engine and gearbox. We are also in discussions about how we could extend the parameter on the technical side, and we will do it.

"It could be [we take all non-listed parts]. It would be a huge support for Sauber to have this kind of partnership with Ferrari. It would be the fastest way to improve because it's a huge step in three months. At the other end, we have to think about the future, and we have to keep in mind that we want to be a Formula 1 team and be able to keep the morale in the factory.

"You need to keep in-house the skills, the technology and the knowhow. I don't want to give up on this and I don't want to just wait just for Ferrari to have the next step of the evolution of the car. We have a very good facility, the wind tunnel is a good one, we have to manage that asset. We have to find the right balance."

Sauber is considering a two-part plan. It could accept help from Ferrari but only in the short term, and by agreeing to take a driver - possibly two - from the Ferrari young driver programme, which would go some way to balancing the books. Then once it is back up into the midfield consistently, it can reduce its reliance on Ferrari and return to maximising its existing facility.

"For us, it's a good way to improve quickly and come back onto the pace and catch the midfield," he says of taking parts from Ferrari. "And then we can see what will be the next step. First we need to think about the close future, next year."

Talks with Ferrari will continue in the coming weeks. By running Ferrari parts and its drivers, Sauber will naturally come to be viewed as Ferrari's B team, a label Haas has steadfastly refused to accept despite its close relationship with the Italian outfit.

Vasseur says he isn't bothered about the moniker. He will do what it takes to turn the team around.

"I don't care about the terms 'B-team' or junior team," says Vasseur. "I want to be a proper team with good drivers, a good engine and good engineers dedicated to performing every single weekend. I want to get the best for the team and from everybody.

"Do you consider Force India is a junior team to Mercedes? Even if they have some parts from Mercedes and even if they have [Mercedes junior Esteban] Ocon, everyone is pushing like hell. [Red Bull junior team] Toro Rosso is pushing like hell. You can say it is the B-team of Red Bull but they are pushing like hell, everyone in the factory."

Vasseur admits there is one downside to taking parts from Ferrari. The Italian team pushes development, and subsequently production, of parts to the limit. That means Sauber would have to wait to know the exact definition of the parts it will be receiving, which in turn delays development of its own car concept.

"That is probably one of the bad points of such a collaboration," says Vasseur. "But it will be a start. We shall see."

Once the technical side of the partnership is ironed out, the driver elements can be finalised. This is the area Ferrari is keen on enhancing; its president, Sergio Marchionne, is intent on finding positions for its juniors Charles Leclerc and Antonio Giovinazzi. Leclerc, the new F2 champion, is almost certain to get one of the seats next year.

Vasseur has known him for a long time. He worked with him last year, since Leclerc won the GP3 title for Vasseur's ART Grand Prix team, while Leclerc is also taking part in a series of first practice sessions with Sauber this year.

"I've been convinced of his talent for a long time," says Vasseur. "He's fast and the most important thing for me is that in the championships he has contested, he has always been improving. He is getting more and more mature. It's normal when you're 18. Even on track, he's always at the right place at the right moment.

"He's always able to do the job and to put together all the splits and all the corners in the same lap in qualifying. I think he's very mature in his relationship with the team and everybody. He knows perfectly what he has to do, and he's a clever guy."

The identity of the second driver is less clear. Ferrari is pushing for Giovinazzi but Sauber remains undecided about how close it needs and wants the partnership to be. Retaining Pascal Wehrlein for a second season remains a strong possibility, since the German has impressed the team and scored all five of its points so far in 2017.

He is a known quantity and would also provide continuity. It is believed Marcus Ericsson is an outsider for the seat, even though the owners have supported his career.

Sauber is expected to make an announcement before the end of the season regarding its line-up, possibly as early as the start of November. But Vasseur seems relaxed about the situation. "We are not in a rush to sort out the race seats," he says. "We have good options and we have time."

If Sauber takes parts from Ferrari, it could be the boost it needs to lift it back into the midfield from next season. That could mean better results, more points and more prize money quickly.

Vasseur could then continue to strengthen Sauber's own structure, organisation and facility to a point where the team can return to doing more in-house, and reduce the number of parts from Ferrari, ultimately returning to being a more authentic constructor.

Maybe Sauber's puzzle will have a simple solution after all.