M. Kaltenborn Is Useless. Sauber Should Fire Her.

[Sakae 0]

I've have never in my wildest dreams envisioned how much heated cyber-conversation Monisha generates. As someone pointed out, I tend to agree, that problem is money, not a woman at the helm. They have, so I read, only 300 employees. Compare to numbers stated recently by Wolff, namely 1500 employees by Mercedes.

Again, after the announcement and clarification who is financing the team, I would expect changes in management in 2018 due to a different ownership. 

[Emmcee 0]

Hang on, I remember monisha when she first came in and correct me if Iam wrong but wasn't she quite vocal on what she was going to do with the team and what not? If I remember rightly, this is what peeved everyone of and the hatred has stuck like crap to a blanket so to speak.

[Sakae 0]

Think Korean. Silence is the correct response when a woman is involved. 

[Insider 0]

21 hours ago, Sakae said:

My information is different, but not much. I thought she initially purchased 1/3 of shares, but admittedly that might have changed, and announcement escaped to me,

Investment by Ericsson's backers is the same what I heard, but there is only some kind of arrangement for 2017. MK might leave in 2018, name might change, moved to elsewhere, who knows. They did not made official announcement yet. 

Initially she purchased 1/3 but Peter gave her more. I believe it goes deeper though. She is a lawyer, was Peter's lawyer before she joined Sauber. He likes her mind and he will never make a move against her. They will never be more than midfield, they never were but they are a symbol of independence. I wish them well. 

[Sakae 0]

26 minutes ago, Insider said:

Initially she purchased 1/3 but Peter gave her more. I believe it goes deeper though. She is a lawyer, was Peter's lawyer before she joined Sauber. He likes her mind and he will never make a move against her. They will never be more than midfield, they never were but they are a symbol of independence. I wish them well. 

+1

[Ruslan 0]

In the end, she kept the team alive until she could sell it. I think that is a lot better than a lot of team managers have done.

 

[Sakae 0]

24 minutes ago, Ruslan said:

In the end, she kept the team alive until she could sell it. I think that is a lot better than a lot of team managers have done.

 

+1

[radical-one 0]

That is if the intention of Sauber team is to sell not to race and be profitable. So they're just going through the motions then.

Good for Sauber. I don't think any lucrative deal is on their way anyways.

More like bankruptcy to me and sell it for a dollar to Ross Brawn  

[Insider 0]

Hmm. Ross Brawn may be a good call but it's 24/7 and he doesn't want that. Ericsson's last reported backer, Oerlikon has expanded it's heavy arms manufacture base to include innovative industrial solutions for the efficient and clean production of Mobility, Energy, Food, Infrastructure, Functional Wear and Electronics in recent times. There is money there for sure. Bankruptcy in Switzerland is pretty much the same as the UK. There is no Chapter 11 protection like the US and Sauber would lose control of all it's assets the second it declared. I don't see that as an option. Oerlikon does make smart materials that are used in car manufacture and have a presence in 37 countries. We'll see.

[radical-one 0]

Kaltenborn did not make a lot of good impressions in her tenure up to date. Sauber went downhill ever since she took the baton. I hope she is a good negotiator in selling Sauber.

Good luck to Monisha. She's gonna need a ton of it.

[radical-one 0]

Sauber announces change of ownership

I bet Kaltenborn is on her way out too....

[Sakae 0]

51 minutes ago, radical-one said:

Sauber announces change of ownership

I bet Kaltenborn is on her way out too....

Noble

Quote

The deal secures the F1 future of the team – whose name will continue – and Kaltenborn will remain on as team principal and CEO.

Looks like Peter first bought back MK's share, and negotiated himself conditions of the deal

[Emmcee 0]

Is this the official end of sauber or is the name staying?

[Sakae 0]

I have this information only second hand, but it looks genuine. It was important to Mr. Sauber, who is withdrawing altogether from the F1 racing, that the team stays in Hinwil. Team's name Sauber, for now, remains unchanged on the front door. MK also stays, at least for one year. I have to search Swiss media and read the company's official statement.

[Ruslan 0]

In the end, Sauber never won a race as Sauber. So, if the name goes, it is not a big loss, sort of like losing the Arrows name.

[Sakae 0]

What I find interesting, that a finance entity, which has audited current situation of F1, and has therefore quite accurate information on state of the business, wants to invest, and take over where Peter left it. Makes one wonder what kind of budget they have allocated, because 300 employees on the current payroll is not enough to get them out of Tier 2 group. (Merc has 1400 I recall Wolff was saying).

[radical-one 0]

Good point Sakae.

I think that company(buyer) will re-sell Sauber if not liquidate in a short period of time.

[Emmcee 0]

Depends on how keen they are,if they want to spend the money, they can turn the team around.

[Sakae 0]

Based on precedents [for example Toyota, Honda, Ferrari], money is good, deep pockets prerequisite, but it is not all. One needs men of ideas on technical side, and sharp minds on strategy side; just about everywhere. Wind tunnel as a tool in support of aerodynamic experimentation and data validation is being again restricted, thus more supercomputers, data modeling and analysis's will replace yesterday's methods. Search for many, many Ph.D.'s  with proper Resume is on. People making those rules should be asked to leave, and I would consider it as the greatest improvement in F1 since 2005. Beats me what kind of saving FiA hopes to achieve with such widespread restrictiveness.

300 personnel is not enough to support ongoing rapid development in-season, and as parallel project work on development of a vehicle for following season. 

[radical-one 0]

Toyota failed big time even with a quadruple budget and 3 times personnel to that of any F1 team then. They even bought and remodeled Fuji circuit for their program.

End up liquidating...

[Sakae 0]

Toyota (as Honda) supplied money, but employed foreign (and I do suspect wrong) managers for too long IMO. Honda learnt from past mistakes, changed their approach, and it is going well. Operations are run in Japan, by Japanese, and they are/will succeed. Those were Lessons Learnt from past failures, mainly clash of two, very different cultures. Having taken into consideration their accelerated development path in comparison to their rivals, it was pretty steep learning curve, but they are about up there with others.

[Emmcee 0]

Toyota failed because not there entire focus was just on f1. When you want to be successful at f1 that has to be your soul focus. They signed the big name drivers but failed to develop on the r&d side of things and left using the GFC as an excuse. The biggest selling car company in the world couldn't afford f1 anymore, no, they just weren't that commited from the word go otherwise they would've had ALL the facilities needed to succeed, a team with there budget available and not have a wind tunnel? Come on.

[radical-one 0]

If i remember correctly, Toyota F1 had wind tunnel in Cologne? 

[Sakae 0]

3 hours ago, radical-one said:

If i remember correctly, Toyota F1 had wind tunnel in Cologne? 

Correct. Actually FI is still using it (from what I read last year).

[Emmcee 0]

I don't think it was there's was it? I thought it belonged to another company and they leased time used.