Vasser: Nothing will change for us in the near future

This week it was officially confirmed what everyone knew beforehand: Audi’s strategic partner, which will enter Formula 1 in 2026, will be the Sauber team, which currently participates in the World Championship as Alfa Romeo.

Frederic Vasseur, Swiss team principal and CEO of Sauber Motorsport, commented on the important news but emphasized that little will change for the company he leads in the coming years.

Frederic Wasser: “This is great news for our team. Of course, this also means that in the future the responsibility we take on will increase, but the most important thing is that we have to take a very important step forward.

The level of competition in Formula 1 is constantly growing and at some point it has become more difficult to remain an independent private company. That’s why we decided to take this step, and I’m very proud of my colleagues, because even though we were probably one of the smallest teams, we’ve handled things well in recent years. But now the development of the team is getting a very powerful boost.

This step is very important, although the size of our budget will approach the maximum next year, while in 2022 we were significantly below this level.

But everyone also remembers the difficult situation we were in in 2016, when a contract was signed with Alfa Romeo, which allowed our team to develop. We went to the next level, invited many new specialists, almost completely completed the modernization of the base in Hinwil – the collaboration with Alfa Romeo allowed us to solve many problems, and I appreciate that very much. But we understand that it will be more difficult to take the next step, but now we get such an opportunity.

At the moment we are fully focused on the current tasks with the three remaining races of this season ahead of us, but also in the period from 2023 to 2025, as we continue to work with our current partners we will work hard, trying to achieve high get results.

This is the best way to motivate all five or six hundred employees of our company, for whom it is the results we show on Sunday that are important. You can’t just talk about plans for the next three years, I need the results now, because with them we can prepare for the future.

So far the plans are: Audi will develop the engine at its base in Neuburg and we will remain responsible for the chassis. However, nothing will change for us in the near future, we will continue to work on developing our business, attracting new partners, inviting new specialists – whatever awaits us in 2026, we must do this work for the next three do year”.

When asked if he would remain team leader going forward, Vasseur just laughed: “In our business, you’re not sure if you’ll keep your post next week, so don’t ask me questions about 2026!”