Sauber Boss Optimistic About New Car

Top privateer team chief Peter Sauber has promised his team has the best equipment to fight Formula One's manufacturer teams this year after insisting the team's new car is "the best Sauber ever."

Sauber has defied the trends of falling budgets - which have crippled two privateer teams, Prost and Arrows, in the last year - and insists the latest offering from his Swiss team has cost more to build than any before.

The small Red Bull-backed team finished last year's championship in fifth place behind the manufacturer-backed Ferrari, Williams-BMW, McLaren-Mercedes and Renault teams.

But he is confident he can take his richer rivals on again this year and told Swiss daily Blick: "It's the best car we've ever built. I can assure you it was our most expensive as well - so it had better be good."

Sauber said his cash-strapped team, which uses the engines from World Champions Ferrari, has still managed to spend more than 1,200 hours on aerodynamic testing for this year's machine.

The small team has always been careful when it comes to budgeting but chief designer Willy Rampf said: "We made no compromises this time and I really believe that this year our car will not only impress our drivers."

They finished ahead of the Jaguar, Toyota and BAR-Honda squads last year despite those rivals gaining impressive budgets for development from their manufacturer backers.

And Sauber believes he can keep them at bay this year with his new machine and the fast and experienced driver pairing of former winner Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Nick Heidfeld.