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Sauber: Spiral was crucial to getting Raikkonen

Sauber: Spiral was crucial to getting Raikkonen

02-01-2019 12:03
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Bobby Vincent

Sauber has admitted that a "spiral" of good news over the last year in Formula One was important in convincing Kimi Raikkonen to join the team.

The Swiss team ended their relationship with Honda in 2017 and signed a new agreement with Ferrari as their power unit supplier.

Since then, Sauber have earned a title partnership with Alfa Romeo and gave new Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc his rookie season in Formula One.

The progress Sauber have made on and off the track was key in their signing of former driver Raikkonen, according to team boss Frederic Vassuer.

"We had Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, we had Charles joining the team," Vasseur told Motorsport. We took Jan Monchaux, Simone Resta, brought them into the factory. Each week we had good news, it's like a spiral. The motivation is there, the mood is huge compared to last year, the team spirit."

Raikkonen will drive alongside Antoinio Giovinazzi in 2019, another driver attracted to Sauber; with Vasseur claiming the Alfa Romeo partnership is "crucial" in attracting new talent to the F1 team.

"For me, drivers are the same," the Sauber boss added. "Good engineers you can motivate with the salary but they love racing and they want to get results. We're in a much better position to recruit, to have top guys in every single department. I have the feeling that we're really attractive as a project.

"Drivers are the same story. Kimi knows it will be difficult for us to better than P7 without an accident (for the better teams). The motivation can come from somewhere else. The fact we're improving, we're growing up, we're building something - I think it's a huge feeling for all the team members, including drivers."