MOTORSPORT: F1 bombshell — Sauber told to change driver

Swiss Formula One team Sauber has been delivered a huge slap today by a Melbourne judge, who has ordered it to give Dutchman Giedo van der Garde a seat in one of its cars for this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix.

Sauber had nominated Brazilian rookie Felipe Nasr and second-year Swedish driver Marcus Ericcson to race its Ferrari-engined C34 cars in the world championship starting at Melbourne’s Albert Park in less than 48 hours.

Van der Garde, 29, claimed he has a contract signed in the middle of last year to race for Sauber this season, but the team subsequently preferred Nasr and Ericsson — most probably because they brought more sponsorship to the team.

An emergency hearing of a European arbitration tribunal recently ruled in the Dutchman’s favour and, after a day considering arguments made in the Victorian Supreme Court on Monday, Justice Clyde Croft has agreed with that ruling and ordered that it be enforced.

Although Van der Garde has not driven a single lap in a C34, while Nasr and Ericsson did hundreds of laps of testing in Spain, he said outside the court that he was the fittest he has been in his life and was ready, willing and able to race this weekend.

It is not clear which driver would lose his place to make way for the Dutchman.

While the decision will have thrown Sauber into turmoil it won’t greatly affect the running of the Australian GP.

Sauber may well appeal the decision within hours — and any appeal may need to be heard tomorrow as F1 practice begins at Albert Park at 10:00am on Friday.

The van der Garde camp told the court today that it had emailed Sauber last night seeking talks, but that it had not had a reply.

Sauber, once the No 4 team in F1 but which last year failed to score a solitary world championship point, now finds itself in a position with little alternative but to deal with him, even if he is not one of its preferred drivers.

Sauber was founded by Swiss businessman Peter Sauber but has been run in recent years by Monisha Kaltenborn, an Indian-born mother of three children who is a one-third shareholder in the team.

Kaltenborn did not appear at the Supreme Court but the team’s legal representative mentioned her during the hearing, including that she had said it would take two weeks to make a race seat for van der Garde and three days to transport to Australia.

Sauber argued that it would be unsafe, indeed reckless and dangerous, to let van der Garde race for it this weekend.

The van der Garde strongly disputed that.

Sauber is under pressure now to respond promptly to Justice Croft’s decision — either to accept van der Garde as one of its race drivers or, more likely, to appeal.