Sauber: Makes sense to race young drivers

While Sauber team boss Frederic Vasseur says it would “make sense” to race young drivers such as Charles Leclerc, he says it is “too early” to speak about next year’s line-up.

The Frenchman was appointed Sauber’s new team boss last month with his first order of business resolving their 2018 engine situation.

That saw the deal with Honda called off and Sauber instead signing a new multi-year deal with Ferrari.

In the wake of that announcement the Scuderia’s president Sergio Marchionne said he could see Sauber becoming a “kind of junior team” where Ferrari blood their young drivers.

But while Vasseur admits there is some legitimacy too that, drivers are not yet Sauber’s focus.

“As a team, it would make sense to have someone like Leclerc or other young drivers,” Vasseur told Motorsport.com.

He added: “It is a bit too early to speak about drivers, to be honest.

“We had to close the [engine] deal quite quickly. It would be a mistake to mix the drivers into the discussion. But we will have the discussion in the next few weeks.”