Just 1 team with Mercedes Engine

[GIR]

According to Nobert Haug there is going to be just 1 extra team with a Mercedes engine. 1 is absolutely the maximum because else the competition would be too stiff. The team that is going to get the engine is unknown as of yet, several teams are negotiating. Mercedes is not going to brand the engine or the team, worse yet they're going to deliver the engine under another name.

The question is how much influence Mercedes is going to get at another team in exchange of cheap engines. Rumour has it Ferrari has alot of influence in the technical and managment of Sauber in exchange of a cheap engine. Mercedes could also profit from such a deal because they could order the other team to detune the engine.

[izzyloveslizzy]

Well it's becoming pretty obvious that the Motorsport section belongs to you, GIR!

By the way, what does Ferrari have to do with it? Why do they even ave a say?

[GIR]

The thing is, the rules say each manufacturer has to open up their engine to another team but they do not say how.

So what Ferrari did was sell Sauber a Ferrari engine very cheap in exchange for deep going sayings in the teams technical management. So in theory Ferrari could tell them not to tune the engine above a certain limit and stuff like that, just to make sure the Sauber cars are slower then Ferrari. Ofcourse this is all just a rumour because the contract between Ferrari and Sauber is concidered a trade secret and not open to the public.

[izzyloveslizzy]

Well that would mean that Sauber would have to be very desperate or stupid. Why take a beating from Ferrari over what can and/or can't be done to their engines? They should have a final sale (like buying a cheap old engine) and with it buying the rights to the engine. Afterwards they could modify the hell out of the engine. Wouldn't that make more sense?

[GIR]

Sauber is currently 9th on the Constructor CHampionship which means they're second from the bottom. They currently have a Petronas engine, which is a cheap engine and they haven't been booking much success with it as you can see. The Ferrari engine could mean the difference between a 9th spot and a spot in the top 5.

You could say it's a deal with the devil, but Sauber is apperently very desperate to become a winningteam.

Personally I think they should fire Frenzen asap cause he is the worste driver ever!

[izzyloveslizzy]

Yeah, seeing as to how Ferrari is pretty much the devil, I agree. That WOULD be a deal with the devil. I think Sauber should go with a Mercedes Engine instead. MB engines are more efficient, and easier to tweak than Ferraris. Besides, Merc. won't give you as much s*** as Ferrari would.