Team insist decision is for technical rather than financial reasons
Tuesday 25 October 2016 13:54, UK
Sauber will use year-old Ferrari engines in 2017, rather than using the Scuderia's new power unit.
This season, Toro Rosso have used a 2015 Ferrari power unit but have felt their progress has been stymied by using an engine which cannot be developed in season.
However, Sauber have decided they can gain more in 2017 by working on their cars' aero now, rather than waiting to see what shape the new Ferrari power unit will be.
"We certainly think it is the right one and it has been driven by the technical decision makers in the team because we know there is a big change coming up and with the size we have and the capacities we have, we needed to focus on that change," team principal Monisha Kaltenborn said in the FIA press conference in Austin.
"We didn't want to wait for that long, whatever changes might come on the engine side or not. It's clear that the engine supplier wants to develop as much as he can until the end of the possibilities, and we didn't want to wait that long.
"We decided to work around what we know; we have sufficient information on that environment around the engine. So we can now focus totally on the chassis side and on performance development."
While it is likely that running year-old engines will be cheaper, Kaltenborn insists the decision was not made for financial reasons.
"This is not at all financially driven," she added. "This is technically driven and we think it's the right way ahead for us."
