GreenBkk.com Formula 1 | Sauber confident it still has one of the best technical facilities in Formula 1

Sauber confident it still has one of the best technical facilities in Formula 1

By Jonathan Noble and Dieter Rencken

Monday, September 5th 2011, 14:18 GMT

Sauber is confident that it has the infrastructure and staffing levels it needs to keep making progress in Formula 1, amid suggestions it still has the best windtunnel in grand prix racing.

With the Hinwil-based outfit having made encouraging steps since BMW's withdrawal at the end of 2009, team principal Peter Sauber is satisfied that there is no need for it to undertake a factory expansion to help it move forward.

"We have a good infrastructure which is at a very high level, and we don't need to ramp anything up," Sauber told AUTOSPORT. "In personnel we did cut back [in line with the Resource Restriction Agreement], and I sincerely hope we manage with this existing staffing level."

The team's Swiss factory did benefit from good investment from BMW during its partnership with the German car manufacturer - which included a ramping up of windtunnel and CFD facilities.

Sauber himself is confident that his team remains at the cutting edge of technology on that front - which is why he sees no need to follow Ferrari and Renault's recent moves in upgrading windtunnels.

"I don't want to be indiscreet but I believe Ferrari and Renault would actually have to ramp up substantially to reach the level of our tunnel," he said.

When asked if he felt Sauber's tunnel was the best in F1, he said: "That I don't want to say. However, I believe only Toyota had a comparable tunnel. It is not only the dimensions that are important, but also the quality of the windtunnel."

One area where the team will continue to rely on outside assistance, however, is in transmission – with this department of its factory having been wound down during the period where BMW did everything on this front in-house in Munich.

Sauber currently uses customer transmission units from Ferrari alongside its engines, and Sauber expects that situation to continue for the foreseeable future.

"In the past we did develop our own transmission, which made sense. However, after the transmissions were built in Munich for the last three years and we no longer had our transmission facility in Hinwil, it didn't make sense to build that up again.

"From a cost perspective it is better to source it from Ferrari – and that will remain the same for next year, as it will for KERS."

Credit: AUTOSPORT.COM (www.autosport.com)