Giedo van der Garde vs Sauber - F1's Money Issue Raised Again

Last week, Giedo van der Garde issued a statement revealing that he and the Sauber team had reached a settlement over his disputed seat. Van der Garde believed that he had a contract with Sauber for this season, only for the team to sign up Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericson instead. This led to the farcical court case that proceeded over the Australian GP weekend which ruled that van der Garde should race in Australia, only for Nasr and Ericson to race, not van der Garde.  Having looked at both parties statements over the situation, I think it really speaks volumes about the money problems that the smaller teams in the sport encounter.

Last season saw both Caterham and Marussia go into administration and miss the final three races of the season (Caterham making it into the final race in Abu Dhabi through crowd funding). Problems were also well documented at Force India, Lotus and Sauber, with each team calling for a rethink in prize money distribution to help the smaller teams cope. However this was rejected, with the likes of Ferrari and Red Bull claiming they shouldn’t have to give up their money. Here is the first problem: The teams at the front of the grid seem to control how money is distributed in F1, and it is all wrong in my opinion. For the sake of the future of the sport, this should be completely overhauled and examined in great detail to ensure small teams can enter F1, stay there and become competitive in the sport. We have seen the three new teams that entered the sport in 2010, HRT, Caterham and Marussia all drop off the grid due to financial problems (although Marussia has been reformed as Manor), and with HASS F1 set to join the grid next season, I don’t want to see another new team be forced out due to money problems. Now according to van der Garde, it was his sponsorship money that got Sauber through the remainder of last season, showing how financially crippled the team were. If a team has to survive off the money of a test and reserve driver, surely the whole F1 world should look at this and say that it isn’t right. Teams are talking about louder engine notes and bigger wheels when what I think they should be talking about is helping smaller teams on the grid survive.

The whole affair has been a shambles for the sport, van der Garde himself and the Sauber team. I understand from van der Garde’s point of view that he has a contract and this should be honoured, I mean what’s the point of the paper it’s written on if it isn’t honoured? However, is one driver bigger than the whole team? No. Had van der Garde went ahead and drove for the team, it could have meant the loss of another team in F1 and with that over 300 jobs, which I don’t believe for one second should be happening. I doubt that we will see van der Garde in F1 again because of this incident, unless another cash strapped team need funding to survive. As for the team, this incident will damage their own reputation and leave a few questions for other drivers if they happen to come along with some money wanting a drive. I’ve mentioned earlier that the sport needs to have a proper look at itself and sort costs out to ensure this farcical debacle doesn’t occur again.