F1

Giedo van der Garde: The mystery of Sauber’s third driver

10 years ago
by Holly Wade

Going into the start of the Formula 1 season there is always bound to be a fracas of some sort or another. Whether it be between new team-mates or the inevitable testing crashes and reliability issues for teams there are always a number of controversies heading into Australia, the opening race of the season.

Giedo van der Garde

But this year lower placed team Sauber, who scored no points throughout their 2014 campaign, have become embroiled in a court case after last season’s driver Giedo van der Garde has claimed that he is owed a seat within the team.

The Swiss team released details of their new drivers earlier in the year, signing ex-Caterham driver Marcus Ericsson and rookie Felipe Nasr with van der Garde seemingly left out in the cold.

After an appeal to a court about his contract with Sauber was upheld the Dutchman arrived at the Melbourne circuit of Albert Park appearing in the team’s racing overalls, despite the fact that Sauber weren’t expecting him to drive and that his F1 super license had not yet been renewed.

Sauber

As such van der Garde was forced to step aside to let Ericsson and Nasr take thier seats. Throughout the entire debacle there was even mention of bailiffs appearing at the track to seize Sauber equipment, as well as team boss Monisha Kaltenborn possibly facing a prison sentence if the team did not reinstae van der Garde.

Since then the 29-year-old has decided to take a step back from the team and drop his current legal action against Sauber, although the court did initially wish for the two parties to sort their differences out between themselves.

Whether van der Garde will ever get to race for Sauber this season remains to be seen but whether he may have damaged his racing career for good is another issue altogether.

What do you make of the current Sauber situation? Have your say in the comments section below.

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