Sauber, who is currently owning 20 percent of the Swiss team, is looking to secure a powerful investor, ready to take over from German manufacturer BMW from 2010 onwards. The team is yet to be confirmed on the 2010 Formula One entry list, as neither BMW, nor Sauber have managed to find a new management for their F1 operations.
Malaysia is already a big part of F1 racing through the sponsorship deal between BMW Sauber and state owned oil company Petronas. However, no official statement on the matter has been made public by the Malaysian government. According to the aforementioned source “in his (Sauber's) luggage could be good news for the future,” regarding the Swiss' visit to Malaysia.
Another possibility for safeguarding the Hinwil based team would be, as suggested in the media lately, a potential deal “with Lotus, Litespeed and Mike Gascoyne in a separate start-up operation,” as reported by the GMM news agency.
Lotus has recently appointed a new CEO – Switzerland's Dany Bahar – and are likely to rethink their entire motor racing strategy for the future. And it was the very Bahar who announced it, earlier this week.
“I am looking forward to taking on the challenges as CEO of this legendary and iconic company with a peerless motor sport history. I can't wait to get my plans underway in October,” said Bahar.
In the meantime, Epsilon Euskadi – one of the teams bidding for a Formula One entry next year – confirmed for Spanish news agency EFE that the FIA will make their final decision on the complete 2010 entry list in “two weeks”.
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