Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn has defended the Swiss outfit’s decision to use year-old Ferrari engines in 2017.
The team recently confirmed it will run with 2016-spec Ferrari power units next season, in order to focus on chassis and aero development with the new regulations.
Sauber has struggled financially in recent years but was taken over mid-way through the current season by Longbow Finance.
A lack of development of the C35 has meant the team has failed to score a point so far this year, holding 11th place in the constructors’ standings.
“Well, we certainly think it is the right one and it has been driven by the technical decision makers in the team because we know there is a big change coming up and with the size we have and the capacities we have, we needed to focus on that change,” Kaltenborn explained.
“We didn’t want to wait for that long, whatever changes might come on the engine side or not. It’s clear that the engine supplier wants to develop as much as he can until the end of the possibilities, and we didn’t want to wait that long.
“We decided to work around what we know; we have sufficient information on that environment around the engine. So we can now focus totally on the chassis side and on performance development.”
She later added: “Regarding our decision now: this is not at all financially driven. This is technically driven and we think it’s the right way ahead for us.”
