page_title: Sauber Motorsport
section_title: Driver's contractual dispute
hierarchical_section_title: Sauber Motorsport / Formula One / Independent return with Ferrari engines (2010–2017) / Driver's contractual dispute
caption_attribution_description: English: Both Sauber drivers during the 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix
context_page_description: Sauber Motorsport AG is a Swiss motorsport engineering company. It was founded in 1970 by Peter Sauber, who progressed through hillclimbing and the World Sportscar Championship to reach Formula One in 1993. In 2019, following a sponsorship deal, Sauber Motorsport AG renamed their Formula One racing team to Alfa Romeo Racing after operating it under their own name from 1993 until 2018.
  Having not won a Grand Prix as an independent, the team was sold to BMW in 2005 and competed as BMW Sauber from 2006 to 2009, scoring one victory. At the end of the 2009 season, BMW pulled out of Formula One and the team's future remained uncertain for several months until it was sold back to Peter Sauber and granted a 2010 entry. Due to issues with the Concorde Agreement, the team remained as "BMW Sauber" for the 2010 season. In March 2010, Peter Sauber announced plans to change the team name during the season but the FIA announced that they would have to wait until the end of the season to change their name. At the beginning of the 2011 season, the team dropped BMW from their name.
context_section_description: The start of the season saw Sauber become involved in legal action commenced by their 2014 reserve driver, Giedo van der Garde. On 5 March 2015, van der Garde received a partial award under international arbitration by the Swiss Chambers' Arbitration Institution, upholding the driver's contract for a race seat in 2015. Sauber breached the contract when the team instead signed Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson as announced in November 2014. Despite the Swiss arbitrator ordering Sauber to "refrain from taking any action the effect of which would be to deprive Mr. van der Garde of his entitlement to participate in the 2015 Formula One season as one of Sauber's two nominated race drivers", further legal action was required to see the award enforced. Just prior to the Australian Grand Prix held on 13 to 15 March 2015, van der Garde applied to an Australian court who ordered, at first instance on 11 March and on 12 March following Sauber's failed appeal, that he be permitted to race in Melbourne. Due to the risk of having its assets seized for not obeying Court orders, Sauber opted to abort participation in Friday morning's first practice session pending an outcome in contempt of court proceedings against Sauber's team principal, Monisha Kaltenborn.
  Based on media speculation, however, thanks to an intervention by Bernie Ecclestone to avoid further negative publicity on the sport, Ericsson and Nasr were able to take part in Friday afternoon's second practice session. The matter was temporarily resolved on Saturday, 14 March 2015, following an announcement by van der Garde that he would forego racing in Melbourne, with a view to finding a more permanent solution in the future. The Sauber team and its new drivers for 2015, Ericsson and Nasr, were thus able to complete the Saturday qualifying session and point-scoring race on the Sunday. Three days later, on 18 March 2015, van der Garde confirmed that he and Sauber had reached, by mutual consent, a settlement that would see him relinquish, once and for all, his rights to race in Formula One with the team in return for compensation in the amount of US$16 million. The controversy, however, continued due to a statement released by van der Garde revealing further background and indicating that his intention had also been that of promoting the rights of racing drivers, whose contracts are often dishonoured. In response, the Sauber team expressed surprise at van der Garde's post-settlement statement opting to not comment further on the matter.
  After the resolution of the dispute, Sauber underwent an improvement from the previous year, finishing fifth in the race, their best result all year. They finished the season 8th, ahead of McLaren and Marussia.
  2016
  On 23 July 2015, Sauber confirmed that Ericsson and Nasr would be retained for 2016.
  mid 2016 Sale to Longbow Finance S.A.
  On 20 July 2016 it was announced that Swiss based investment firm Longbow Finance had bought both Peter Sauber and Monisha Kaltenborn's shares in the company, which made Longbow Finance the sole owner of Sauber. Pascal Picci was announced to take Peter Sauber's role as chairman of the board and president. Monisha Kaltenborn remained as Team principal and CEO of Sauber. The acquisition by Longbow Finance followed a series of speculation about the future of Sauber. The team had been in financial trouble for years before the change of ownership, often being unable to pay salaries to team members on time. Longbow's owners are said to include Swedish billionaires Finn Rausing, Stefan Persson and Karl-Johan Persson.
  During the season, the team only scored points on one occasion; Felipe Nasr's ninth-placed finish in the Brazilian Grand Prix scored two points for the team, who finished tenth in the Constructors' Championship, one point ahead of Manor.
  2017
  On 11 November 2016, Sauber announced Ericsson would remain with the team in 2017. On 16 January 2017, the team announced the signing of Pascal Wehrlein, replacing Nasr. After Wehrlein was injured in a crash at the 2017 Race of Champions, Ferrari third driver Antonio Giov
caption: Sauber drivers Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson racing for position at the 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix
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