Sauber Could Start 2004 with Current Car

The Sauber team could start the 2004 season with this year's C22 car, the Swiss squad's technical director Willi Rampf told Atlas F1.

"We haven't decided yet," said Rampf when asked if the team would continue with the C22 next year. "That is one possibility - to start with the current car and to make a revision of the current car. The other is to start a new car. Both solutions are possible and we are working on both."

Sauber, one of the three Formula One teams who are not backed by a manufacturer, have struggled for pace this year and are currently in ninth position in the Constructors' Championship with only nine points.

The Hinwil-based outfit had finished in fourth place in the 2001 Championship and fifth last season. Rampf claimed their lack of budget is partially to blame for their drop off in performance.

"I think it has a bit to do with the resources," Rampf told Atlas F1 in an interview. "It is the manpower, the money, the wind tunnel hours. I think that some teams have about three times the amount of wind tunnel hours that we have so there is no reason why they should have smaller steps or equal steps than we do.

"With the C20, which we raced in 2001, we scored almost all the points in the beginning of the season. We had a very good car at the beginning and then, basically, we dropped off a little bit. It seems the developments we can do during the year are smaller than the competition are able to achieve."

Rampf, however, said the team were confident of moving forward once their new state-of-the-art wind tunnel begins working at the start of next year.

Read the entire interview in today's issue of Atlas F1.