Alfa leaves, drivers stay: curtain closed: Sauber needs a fresh start in 2024

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In Las Vegas (November 19) and Abu Dhabi (November 26), the last 615 kilometers of racing will also see the end of five years with title sponsor Alfa Romeo. Then, until Audi gets involved in 2026, you need to get a sensible team name for the next two years and not a deceptive package.

Alfa Romeo – that was once

“Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake” could not identify either a manufacturer or an engine worldwide. That’s why Blick always wrote Alfa-Sauber. To which even the always critical ex-team owner Peter Sauber (80) kindly accepted.

Only the purists stuck to the Italians. In 1950/51, Farina and Fangio were the first two Formula 1 world champions with their own car and engine. At Sauber, Alfa was just a paying free rider for its advertising campaigns.

“No progress for a year”

Those who miss the unique opportunity to score points (as they did on Sunday in Brazil) should not be surprised by a 9th place at the World Cup. In the official messages to the outside world, management and pilots once again suggest that there was a lot of bad luck and the existing speed.

Why actually? A few races ago, Bottas summed it up at an international media conference: “We haven’t made any progress for a year!”

Two cases – one rarity

And team representative Alunni Bravi finally told the world press here last Friday what is going on: “The C43 is technically exhausted – we need a completely new car for 2024!”

So again, stop covering up or even hiding everything. Anyone who, in today’s world, loses both cars during the race due to technical defects, while failures (not crashes) are rare in Formula 1, has a real problem.

The votes for failure

Bottas: “It’s a technical problem, we have to investigate it carefully!” Zhou: “It’s a technical defect, but we still need to clarify it!” Alunni Bravi: «There were two different things that forced us to take the cars out of the race! Hinwil will bring clarity.”

In the evening, Blick found out through third-party channels: the water temperature in both cars became too high. Then it’s the engine’s turn.

CEO Seidl, take over!

One can now only hope with the fans that the new German CEO Andreas Seidl (47) will use the Alfa Romeo ending at Sauber to finally officially address the ‘state of the nation’. There are still some unanswered questions about the future.

But one thing is clear: the entire happiness of a team depends (even more than that of the drivers) on a competitive car. If you don’t understand your own toys, you won’t get anywhere. Formula 1 is now too close to each other for that. Sometimes the first and last car are less than a second apart!

Source : Blick