The Sauber Van der Garde Dilemna

[Doc Austin]

From the description of the circumstances I heard, it sounds like she's running something akin to a racing Ponzi scheme over there.

It's very disappointing. As this unfolded I really didn't want to believe Sauber was wrong, but it appears they simply sold VDG's seat right out from under him.

If I have the numbers correct, VDG paid something like $8 million for the ride, and the settlement was something like $15 million. VDG is walking off with another $7 than he started with, so he could easily turn that into a season of Indycar. Then again, with that kind of money in hand it would be hard not to run down to Cosumel for a couple of years of hookers, Tequilla and blow.

While we are talking numbers, why would Sauber pay $15 million to settle an $8 million dispute? My guess is that they hosed the other two drivers down for more money, and that squeezed VDG out because he was cheapest to get rid of. Still, what kind of sense does it make to keep the money for a year and only have to pay it back nearly double? Maybe this kind of math is what got Sauber in such money trouble to begin with.

With this finally settled hopefully Sauber can have a decent year. If you set everything else aside, it is hard not to cheer for Nasr after the blistering race he had this weekend, and even Ericson looked reasonably decent. They could easily have a banner year and pull themselves back into decent shape.

Finally, formula One used to have a contracts recognition board that ruled on these sort of things. As far as I can tell, they still do, but through this whole thing there was never any mention of it. I wonder if this was such a stickey mess that the FIA just opted to stay out of it. Formula One needs to be above this sort of thing.