Newsgroup: it.sport.formula1.moderato
Titolo: [ENG] Close but no cigar

Source: ITV-F1
http://www.itv-f1.com/features/featuresf1_story/10714
Click to enlargePeter Sauber: chews more of Havana's finest than Groucho,
but they haven't been enough - yet - to elevate his team to the really
big league. Will he ever make the jump? Tom Clarkson chewed the fat (no
cigars) with F1's most enigmatic boss Photographs by Darren Heath
We are sitting either side of a table, staring at one another like two
monkeys in a cage. We've already discussed the relative performances of
his cars in this afternoon's free practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Now, he just sits there. I study his face, picking on various trademark
features: the sallow complexion, the smile lines surrounding his eyes,
the perfectly aligned teeth - stained ever  so slightly by cigar smoke -
and the immaculately trimmed hair surrounding his bald pate. He looks
young for 58. We're sitting in Herr Sauber's temporary office at the back
of his team's pit garage, awaiting the arrival of Agnes Carlier, his
multilingual press officer, whose job it  will be to translate his
Swiss-German for me. If we can hear one another, that is, because only a
thin section of plywood separates us from the din of drills and mechanics
shouting at each other.  When Agnes finally arrives, the noise
coincidentally dies down as the boys head off for a bite of lunch - and
we begin our 'long interview', which is made longer by the enforced
laborious interview technique.  I ask a question, Peter thinks about his
answer before replying in German, which Agnes then translates.
Significantly, my English question doesn't have to be translated - only
Peter's answer. Truth is, Peter speaks English in FIA press conferences.
He can do it. He bursts into the occasional flurry of English, but it's
rare. He feels more comfortable - and gives better answers, if you have
the patience - speaking in his mother tongue.It's a scene that reminds me
of television footage from the late 1970s inwhich Leonid Brezhnev, then
Soviet president for the second time, palmed offthen then British Prime
Minister James Callaghan in a similar fashion. Thejoke was on Callaghan
then, and it is on me now. So my first question is rather predictable... Tom
Clarkson: Are you at a disadvantage being unable to speak English? Peter
Sauber: Yes, a big one. TC: Why have you not tried to learn it? PS: Since
I've been in F1, I haven't had time to learn English properly. In
Switzerland, the first foreign language you learn is French, not English.
I find myself thinking about the entire sentence before I say  it, which
is an impossible way to learn. He ends this last remark with a grin - no,
make that a self deprecating smirk.
TC: Moving onto racing, what can Sauber achieve this season? PS: We have
a clear goal: to keep our fourth position in the constructors'championship.
It will be very difficult, but we will try.
TC: Do you have the right drivers? Have you been impressed with Felipe
Massa? PS: Principally, I think it is too early to say very much about
Felipe. For sure he is fast and has a lot of talent, but talent is not
enough in Formula 1.
TC: Okay. Can he be compared to Kimi Raikkonen, who drove for you last
year?
PS: Only in one area: speed. That is the same. But they're totally
different characters; they couldn't be more different. Felipe is Latin;
Kimi is Scandinavian. The body language and the way they deal with people
in the team are very different.
TC: How is Nick Heidfeld developing? Click to enlargePS: Nick is even
more important to the team now that he has a year'sexperience with us.
He's very good technically and he has had a very goodapprenticeship in F1
as test driver for McLaren. He's also a very fast driver, like Kimi and
Felipe. He's very fast. TC: Is Nick your number-one driver?
PS: We don't have a number-one and a number-two in the team. Nick has an
important position, but he's not our number-one driver.  TC: Will Nick
drive for you in 2003?
PS: We have an option to sign Nick for '03, but I think it's too early to
speakabout that.
TC: Why was Kimi chosen by McLaren, and not Nick - who has links with
them?
PS: I don't know, but this is an old story. Our intention was to work
with Kimifor longer - but, in the end, that was not possible.
It is well known that Ferrari had been angling for Kimi last year, only
tohave him snatched from under their noses by McLaren. You can be sure
that the Maranello boys will be very careful not to let the same thing
happen twice. TC: Do you worry about Felipe being taken by a bigger team
- Ferrari maybe? PS: We have a long-term contract with Felipe, but both
sides have the possibility to end the contract at the end of every year.
TC: With Nick and Felipe, you're continuing a trend of only employing
smalldrivers...
Click to enlargePS: That's a joke. At the moment we have two very small
drivers and, ofcourse, it's easier for the designer to build a car with a
smaller space for the drivers. You think this because of all this
business about Jos Verstappen not fitting in our car, don't you? Well,
that story has been blown out of all proportion by the press. We
contacted Jos because he had become free unexpectedly. As we only test
with one car, we do not need a test driver. He would have been our spare
driver. We were happy to give him the opportunity to drive the car once,
but he couldn't fit in it. End of story. TC: How has your success in '01
changed Sauber's image?
PS: I think the English press now realise that Sauber exist. That's nice
after nine years in F1! Don't forget that the English-speaking press is
very, very important in this global sport. I also think that our success
has given us a more exciting image, which is useful in F1 - not that I
have actively sought to change it. That'snot my way.  This is the first
of several digs at what Herr Sauber perceives to be the parochial
attitude of the English racingfraternity as a whole towards the
continental-based teams. A them-and-us attitude from Sauber.
TC: Has your success helped materially?
PS: If you're talking about money, not yet. It's very difficult to get
new sponsors at the moment, especially after the atrocities of September
11.
TC: Why did Red Bull sell their equity in the team?
PS: I think they wanted to have their own team, and that was not possible
with us. [Red Bull boss] Dietrich Mateschitz owned two-thirds of the
team, but he didn't have the majority voting rights - I did.
TC: How long is the deal with Credit Suisse?
PS: I'm very pleased that Credit Suisse bought the shares from Red Bull.
I would have loved to buy them myself, but they were too expensive! TC:
How long are Credit Suisse committed to the team?
PS: The sponsorship is for three years and their shareholding could be
forlonger. Red Bull, on the other hand, have committed sponsorship to us
forjust this additional year - their eighth with the team. TC: Do you
think F1 is too expensive? PS: Yes, of course. It's important that we try
to make it less expensive - but every  time we try, it ends up becoming
more expensive! For example, I support one engine per grand prix weekend,
but I'm not convinced that it will be less expensive in the long run.
Even if we cut testing, the big teams will use the money they would have
allocated to that on other areas of performance. It will not save money.He
draws a diagram on the back of a timesheet to illustrate this point,
using arrows to mark the budget of a big team versus that of his team. Click to enlargeTC:
For Sauber to win races, do you need an exclusive manufacturer engine
deal? PS: We're very happy with our engine supplier. We have a powerful
and reliable engine, and last season we had four manufacturers finish
behind us in the constructors' championship. I'm very happy with where we
are at the moment because I'm sure we're the most efficient team on the
grid.
TC: How much longer is your engine deal with Ferrari?
PS: The contract between our engine supplier Petronas and Ferrari will
finish at the end of this year, but I'm confident that the co-operation
will continue.
TC: Do you think you get value for money?
PS: The co-operation between Petronas, Ferrari and Sauber is now in its
sixth year, and I believe that a co-operation can only exist for such a
long time if it's satisfying  for all parties. It is widely accepted that
the electronics on the Ferrari engine are superior to those on any other
- except, perhaps, the Renault - which flatters young, inexperienced
drivers. So what Sauber pays for his engines, he saves on driver
salaries.  TC: What is your ultimate goal in F1?
PS: There is none - for me. Today, it's to remain fourth in the world
championship,  as I say. We're mixing it with the top teams but, unlike
them, we're not under pressure to perform within a certain time-frame.
TC: Is that really true? Are you really under no pressure from your
sponsors?
PS: None. What I want is for us to achieve the maximum at each step.
We've won every series we've entered, as well as Le Mans. But it was
never our goal at the beginning of the sportscar season to become world
champions; it was just a matter of continual improvement.
TC: How have the opposition changed since last year?
PS: Renault look more competitive than they were as Benetton and, at themoment,
Jordan, British American Racing and Jaguar don't look quite socompetitive.
But they all have the potential to improve during the season - because
they have the money, the infrastructure, the people and the know-how. And
I've been very impressed by Toyota.
TC: Do you welcome the arrival of these manufacturer teams into F1?
PS: Yes, I do, although starting a team from scratch like Toyota have
done is very difficult. But they've shown us that it's possible to enter
F1 and progress quickly. Of course, it's easier to buy a team like
Benetton, as Renault did, because all you have to do is change the name.
TC: Indeed. How has the lack of a chief designer affected your team?
PS: You do know - don't you? - that the famous 'twin-keel' front
suspension on last year's Sauber C20 was originally Harvey
Postlethwaite's idea [it has widely been attributed to Sergio Rinland,
Sauber's one-time chief designer, now at Arrows]. Our relationship with
Sergio didn't work out; it would make no sense to discuss why here. He
raises his voice when talking about Rinland and gesticulates a lot - as
if to emphasise his points. Clearly, their collaboration cannot have been
an entirely harmonious one...
TC: I see...
PS: Our team, headed by Willi [Rampf, technical director], built the C21
with the team that we have, and it's a good car. It's lighter,
aerodynamically better and, I hope, more reliable than last year's car.
So we're no longer looking for a chief designer.
TC: What role does former technical director Leo Ress play in the team?
PS: He's head of R&D. For example, Leo has developed different gearboxconcepts
for the new car.
TC: How are you catering for the future of your design team?
PS: We have young people joining us from universities in Switzerland and
Germany, where the engineering education is at a very high level.  What
people on the Continent lack is experience in motorsport, and that's the
reason why all the teams based on the Continent often have to hire people
from England - because that's where the experience lies. We now have
seven different design groups: five are led by Swiss engineers, one by an
Englishman and one by an American.  TC: Do you have problems attracting
staff to Switzerland? PS: I can understand that it's not easy for someone
with children to move to Switzerland, though it may be harder for them to
go back to England after several years. Switzerland is probably more
expensive, but it offers a high quality of life. Part 2 of the interview
with Peter Sauber will appear next week.
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Source: ITV-F1
http://www.itv-f1.com/features/featuresf1_story/10779
Click to enlargePart two of Tom Clarkson's in-depth interview with Peter
Sauber.
TC: Are there any obvious advantages to being based in Switzerland?
PS: It's in central Europe, so it's close to most of the tracks. It's not
necessary to swim if you want to get anywhere!
Yet another demeaning remark towards the English teams. Either that, or
it's a Swiss-German joke. You decide!
TC: How significant is your new wind tunnel to the future of the company?
PS: The biggest tool in building a car is a wind tunnel - which is why
we're building a really good one, costing £28 million. It takes 50 per
cent models as well as 100 per cent models - all on a rolling road. It
will be ready for operation at the end of '03. But we're not stuck until
then because the tunnel we use at the moment is of very high quality. It
belongs to an aircraft company, located just an hour from Hinwil - and
we've been using a 50 per cent model there for five years now.
TC: Do you use that tunnel every day?
PS: We could, but we don't have the money for that. It's not just the
cost of the tunnel that is expensive; it's also the cost of the people
associated with it. We don't have the necessary people to run it 52 weeks
per year, so we use it 40 weeks per year. We're trying to grow the entire
aerodynamics side of the team so that, when our tunnel is ready, we'll be
ready to exploit it to the full. To do that, we'll need double the number
of people we have at the moment.
TC: Are you involved in any businesses outside motorsport?
PS: Only Sauber Petronas Engineering, and that's very closely related to
F1.
TC: What does Sauber Petronas Engineering do?
PS: It's a joint venture company with Petronas and it has different
tasks. One of them is a technical transfer programme, where we transfer
premier technical know-how to 15 or 20 Malaysian engineers at a time.
They stay for two years. in 1998, we developed a 2.0-litre street car
engine for Petronas to the pre-production stage. Then there's the
three-cylinder motorbike engine, and now we're working on racing fuel and
lubricant development - also for Petronas.
TC: Are there plans for a Proton F1 engine?
Click to enlargePS: This is not for me to decide. The development of a F1
engine requires a lot of resource, and the powertrain division of Sauber
Petronas Engineering is a small company with about 40 people.
TC: What is your personal motivation in F1?
PS: I have two. First, as an entreprenuer. We have about 300 people in
the company and I have a personal responsibility towards each of them,
and some of them have been with me for 10 to 15 years. They'e given a
very big part of their lives to develop the company, so I want to succeed
for them. Second, there's the sporting side - and that means to be as
successful as possible.
TC: Are you a good man manager?
PS: I'll be very honest with you. I think there are better managers in
F1, but I'm a good entrepreneur - although that's not the same thing. For
me, it's important to look for good managers for our different
departments.
TC: Describe your management style?
PS: To give the managers in the company a direction and a way of
thinking. It's very important that we work as a team, and we really are a
team. That's an advantage that we have over some of the bigger teams.
He becomes very - or should I say more? - serious when talking about the
welfare of his employees. I am told by members of  the team that he is a
good boss; he breeds great loyalty as a result.
TC: Would you ever return to sportscars?
PS: It was never my goal to get into F1, but now we're here I don't want
to go back. To build an F1 car is no more difficult than to build a
sportscar. The difference with F1 is that the quality of the opposition
is much higher. Finally, this is what makes F1 much more difficult than
anything else in motorsport.
TC: How long will you continue in F1?
PS: I'm 58 years old and I feel very fit. It wouldn't be a problem for me
to work for another seven years in F1, but how I feel isn't important.
How long I'm good for the company is what's important. I need to look at
the short-and middle-term future of the company and I must do what is
right for it, be that getting in additional people to help me or an
engine manufacturer.
TC: Which team bosses are you close to?
PS: I'm close to Jean Todt because of our engine deal. I have a lot of
respect for Frank Williams, too. If he and I speak together, both sides
are sure that the other is telling the truth - and that's very important.
TC: What about [McLaren's] Ron Dennis? Do you get on well with him?
Click to enlargePS: He's a completely different man from Frank, and my
relationship with him is not the same. I have respect for Ron because I
like McLaren. Maybe it's a little bit too dark at the moment - a bit
black, a bit grey - but Ron has a clear objective, which is to win. I
admire him for that. He then gets out an electronic dictionary in search
of a word that best describes Ron. While tapping on the keyboard he
mutters 'vorbild', before announcing in English...
PS: Model! It says here that Ron is a model.
Eh? Let's hope we don't see him on the world's catwalks in the near
future...
TC: Well, in one sense, I guess he is...
So, are you close to Bernie Ecclestone?
PS: Today, F1 is at an extremely high level, both financially and from a
sporting point of view. Bernie has made it what it is today.
TC: Can you just pick up the telephone to him at any time?
PS: Yes, no problem - and he has time to speak to me. But I don't speak
to Bernie a lot because it's not necessary for me to do so.
TC: Do you worry about the future of F1 after Bernie?
PS: I've thought about this a lot because it affects the future of my
company as well as my own future. F1 after Bernie will be a different F1,
but that's normal.
TC: Who will succeed Bernie?
PS: I don't see this person at the moment. I think it would have to be
someone from within F1, because he would need to know the people involved
and the way that it works. To be honest, I don't really want to share my
thoughts about life after Bernie.
TC: Do you think that [FIA president] Max Mosley does a good job?
There is a long pause, maybe up to 45 seconds, before he answers my
question.
PS: That F1 is, in my opinion, the number-one sport in the world is down
to Bernie and the FIA. I think the FIA do a good job because they have a
difficult job. A lot of people think that they could do it better, but I
doubt whether they could.
Ultra-cagey...
TC: Are you a workaholic?
PS: No, but I work a lot. F1 is a technical war and I have to fight.
TC: Is F1 a passion of yours?
Click to enlargePS: Today, yes. But I still have a little bit of time for
hobbies. I ride a BMW 1200 LT motorbike, similar to a Honda Goldwing. I
like it a lot, but I only do between 600 and 2,000 miles per year. I've
ridden different BMWs for 20 years. Another hobby is skiing and, despite
my age, I still ski at a good level. I have a house in Laax, which is
about two hours' drive from Zürich. It's a beautiful region of the Alps,
1,000-3,000 metres high.
TC: Would you like there to be a Swiss Grand Prix again?
PS: I like the idea, but it wouldn't be possible to build a track in
Switzerland because the country is too small. It's like a village.
There's not enough space and, even if there were, it would be too
expensive - because the Swiss people would try to build the perfect
track. It would be impossible to make it viable.
TC: Who are the best and worst drivers to have driven for you?
PS: The best was Michael [Schumacher], in sportscars. Even back then, it
was clear that he was very, very good. And I don't remember the worst!
The memory of Michael triggers something in his mind: he puts his hands
on top of his head and lets out a deep, nostalgic, breath.
TC: What is your biggest extravagance?
PS: That in the 10 years of F1 I haven't changed at all. Don't forget
that I've been involved in motorsport for 33 years and, for the first 15
years, I didn't have enough money for toys - and certainly not enough
time for toys. In the end, you can't wish for more than to be happy - and
I'm happy.
TC: How important is money to you?
PS: From a business side, it's the most important tool in F1. You always
need more people and better infrastructure - and for these things you
need money. But money is no guarantee of a good car - there are a few
examples of that! Personally, I have enough money. You can't compare me
to the really rich people in F1 - But that's okay because it isn't
important for me to be really rich.
Click here for part one
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