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...One of the biggest question marks concerns his superlicence, as the FIA has a process that has to be followed. The team has to apply via the driver’s national sporting authority, and Sauber has failed to do that...
...It was revealed in court today that Monisha Kaltenborn wrote to the CRB last week to tell them that Van der Garde’s contract had been terminated in February.
Unusually this letter came after the Swiss arbitration court judgement which is at the centre of this week’s proceedings, and which said that the Dutchman should drive. In effect that contract now has to be re-activated at the CRB, and any delay at this critical stage helps Sauber to stop van der Garde driving. A cynic might suggest that contacting the CRB last week was a clever tactic by the team...
What a mess this is turning out to be. Another court trial tomorrow from what I hear. I think we will be seeing VDG Qualifying by tomorrow without even doing any free practice.
He's got no Super Licence though... Sauber needed to applied and, shockingly, they left it too late.
Mark my words, Bottas will be world champion by 2020 - Me 24/11/14
"Inherently, we at Williams just want to win races. We love going motor racing, we have a real passion for it and that never diminishes." Claire Williams
Frontrunner wrote:What a mess this is turning out to be. Another court trial tomorrow from what I hear. I think we will be seeing VDG Qualifying by tomorrow without even doing any free practice.
I'm not sure if this is correct, but I thought that a driver had to be in the car or maybe nominated to be in the car if it doesn't go out during FP2/3 to qualify & race.
I'm sure I have heard this before during a practice session, hence why third drivers can only drive in FP1 unless they are taking the place of another driver in the race.
myownalias • The Englishman in Kansas • Twitter: @myownalias
...it remains to be seen how cooperative the FIA will be. There have been instances in the past where superlicence applications have been rushed through in cases of force majeure...
...He has already set the wheels in motion with the Dutch authorities – the KNAF – who are ready to help.
“Everything is in place, everything is there, the application. I don’t see any issues with the paperwork on my side. Sauber just has to push it.”...
Dutch media reports on Tuesday said Bernie Ecclestone was involved in negotiations that have ended the Giedo van der Garde saga. The morning newspaper De Volkskrant refers to compensation for the Dutch driver in the order of EUR 15 million, with other reports saying the money will flow from a Credit Suisse account in the coming hours.
Another daily, Algemeen Dagblad, reported that van der Garde's manager Jan-Paul ten Hoopen will have something to say on the matter later this week. It seems the financial compensation, calculated on the basis of van der Garde's two contracted years at Sauber (2014 and 2015) as well as legal fees, will result in the 29-year-old dropping the case in full.
It is believed F1 supremo Ecclestone, from his office in London, got involved in the frantic negotiations last weekend as the negative headlines swirled from the Melbourne courts and paddock throughout the world. Algemeen Dagblad said the 84-year-old Briton personally contacted fellow billionaire Marcel Boekhoorn, who is Van der Garde's backer and father-in-law. It is rumoured part of the deal might involve Boekhoorn taking shares in the embattled Swiss team.
Giedo van der Garde has issued out this statement: "We have reached a settlement with Sauber and my driver contract with the team has been ended by mutual consent. As a passionate race driver, I feel sad and am very disappointed. I have worked very hard my entire career, ever since starting with go-karts at the age of eight, to live my dream and become a successful Formula One driver. I had hoped at last to be able to show what I am capable of, driving a car for a respected midfield team in the 2015 season. This dream has been taken away from me and I know that my future in Formula One is probably over."...
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...Finally, I would like to direct a few words to the teams, drivers, future drivers, their managers and the Formula One governing bodies. I sincerely hope that what has happened to me will start a movement aimed at setting new standards and bringing about new regulations to help protect the rights of drivers. I would like to think that the values and business ethics that apply in any other business should be equally applicable in Formula One. I am lucky to have had Marcel and Jeroen on my side. Both of them have extensive backgrounds in business and bring a lot of expertise to the table when it comes to resolving complicated business affairs. Without them, I would have remained empty-handed in the wake of this extraordinary affair. There are numerous examples of talented drivers with good intentions but without the sort of professional support that I have had, who have been broken by Formula One and who have seen their careers destroyed. I therefore hope that my unprecedented case which was heard last week by the Supreme Court of Victoria at Melbourne will serve as an example to illustrate what should change, and that new regulations will be implemented to help protect driver rights.
A Sauber statement: "Many of you read today's statement on Giedo van der Garde's Facebook page. So have we and we were, indeed, rather surprised. We don't know about Giedo's intentions. He may try to present himself as a winner, while we had actually hoped to come to rest after our agreement. Giedo decided to take a different approach – the reasoning behind we cannot understand."
"We'd have very good answers to the many statements and accusations in Giedo's post. But to expand on this wouldn't help our race team nor our fans and partners. It would only encourage a mud fight via the media and we will not lend ourselves to that. The next race in Malaysia is where our focus is and that's where we will build up on last weekend's success together with our drivers Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr. All our efforts are drawn to this objective."
"With this in mind we'd like to encourage you to form your own opinion about what happened, however critical it may be. From our side we herewith close the matter and look already forward to celebrating future achievements at the race track together with you."
, Adam Cooper wrote:No issues with my superlicence, says Van der Garde
ouch!!