Chelsea F1 partners create a stir with new Russian investment

July 16 – Chelsea FC partners Sauber Motorsport AG of Zurich, Switzerland, has landed a substantial commercial deal that will catapult the firm, and its partners, into a new era in Formula One. 

The new deal will increase the competitiveness of the Sauber team while significantly opening up opportunities in the Russian market to the team and its existing partners.

Sauber had been struggling financially but the new arrangements, negotiated by Sauber’s tough CEO Monisha Kaltenborn, gives the team a powerful financial base and prevents the team from becoming marginalised by the huge amounts of funding available to other teams.

The partnership with Russian funds and high tech firms (the Investment Cooperation International Fund, The State Fund of Development of North-West Russian Federation and the National Institute of Aviation Technologies) will be a major commercial factor in Sauber’s future development, while their Russian partners – through a Russia-based joint venture with Sauber Motorsport AG – will get access to top level Formula One technology and knowhow.

The expansion into the Russian market and the opening up of Russian sources of finance is significant as the country increases its top-level sporting profile. Russia is hosting the FIFA World Cup 2018. Chelsea is owned by Russian Roman Abramovich – though he was not involved in putting this deal together.

The Russian partners are keen to use Sauber’s expertise in driver training (Sebastian Vettel was a young Sauber driver). A development programme will be set up for the Russian driver Sergey Sirotkin to prepare him as a racing driver for the team in 2014. The partnership includes further activities for the promotion of the inaugural Formula 1 Grand Prix in Sochi in 2014.

Kaltenborn is proving herself to be one of the canniest operators in sports team management and is not standing still having completed the Russian deal.

Sauber may have been one of the smaller teams on the F1 grid but it has always had a technological edge. It has one of two state of the art wind tunnels at its headquarters in Hinwil, Zurich, often used by leading automotive companies. It is also a leader in telemetry and is about to announce a further cooperation with a medical science foundation based on its world-leading technological expertise.