Adam Cooper F1

It seems that time is running out for Giedo van der Garde in his quest for a superlicence, and there is now virtually no chance that he will have one granted today and thus be able to drive the Sauber.

As previously noted, one of the steps is that the Contracts Recognition Board has to approve legal aspects of a driver’s deal with a team. Monisha Kaltenborn wrote to the CRB last week to claim that the contract had been terminated, but despite the court rulings it seems that Sauber has not written to the CRB to reactivate the contract. That puts a stop to any attempt to fast track a licence through.

While the original Swiss arbitration ruling is evidence on van der Garde’s behalf that the contract is still valid, clearly it will take time for the CRB to make a call.

The next step is a court hearing at 1030 today in which Sauber could be found in contempt of court if Justice Croft deems that the team has not complied with his order and taken appropriate steps to put van der Garde in the car.

The CRB issue would seem to suggest a clear breach – so if this morning’s judgement goes against the team the judge can call for the team’s “assets in Australia” – its cars and equipment – to be seized by bailiffs. Given the timings this could even happen before the start of FP1 at 1230, which would mean no Saubers on track this weekend.

There is also potential for personal action against Kaltenborn as a director of the team.

This might not be a lucky Friday the 13th for the Swiss outfit…

While the wheels of the court process continue to turn the practicalities of Giedo van der Garde driving a Sauber this weekend have come into focus.

One of the biggest question marks concerns his superlicence, as the FIA has a process that has to be followed. The team has to apply via the driver’s national sporting authority, and Sauber has failed to do that.

Also one of the conditions is that the Contracts Recognition Board is happy with the legal side. It was revealed in court today that Monisha Kaltenborn wrote to the CRB last week to tell them that Van der Garde’s contract had been terminated in February.

Unusually this letter came after the Swiss arbitration court judgement which is at the centre of this week’s proceedings, and which said that the Dutchman should drive. In effect that contract now has to be re-activated at the CRB, and any delay at this critical stage helps Sauber to stop van der Garde driving. A cynic might suggest that contacting the CRB last week was a clever tactic by the team…

Meanwhile it remains to be seen how cooperative the FIA will be. There have been instances in the past where superlicence applications have been rushed through in cases of force majeure.

Van der Garde remains confident that his superlicence can be fast tracked.

“I think so, it’s just a bit of paperwork now,” he told this writer after today’s court proceedings. “And Sauber has to help in filing it. So we’ll see in the next few hours what comes out. The good thing is it’s now early in Europe, so they’ll start working, and still have a whole day. That’s positive.”

He has already set the wheels in motion with the Dutch authorities – the KNAF – who are ready to help.

“Yeah, we’re pushing already for the last few days. Everything is in place, everything is there, the application. I don’t see any issues with the paperwork on my side. Sauber just has to push it.”

Regarding his seat he said: “I don’t see any issue with it. Even if they don’t have my [2014] seat there, it’s done very quickly, in three hours you have a foam seat. I think the mechanics they know very well how to do it, so I don’t see any issue with that.”

The Giedo van der Garde v Sauber case will drag into Thursday after Sauber submitted an appeal.

This morning Justice Croft handed down a judgement in favour of Van der Garde, in effect demanding that Sauber put him in the car. He also noted that it “applies to the whole of the 2015 Formula 1 season – not just in relation to the coming few days in Melbourne for the Australian GP.”

Sauber then submitted an appeal which led to a hurriedly convened Court of Appeal hearing this afternoon, presided over by Justices Beach, Whelan and Ferguson.

They hadn’t had much time to learn about the case and were not very familiar with the way F1 works, and after a brief discussion, mainly involving Sauber’s lawyer Rodney Garrett, they decided to await submissions from those involved and reconvene at 9.30am on Thursday.

That delay starts to make things even more complicated in terms of getting van der Garde fully prepared to drive should the Swiss team finally accept that it has no choice.

Garrett repeated his safety arguments today – on the basis that it takes two weeks to get a driver fitted for the car.

The judges were intrigued to know how the sport is governed, and were told it was by the FIA. In response to the discussion about safety, the judges made the point that whatever they decided might be irrelevant if the FIA wasn’t happy.

Justice Whelan made a logical suggestion to Garrett: “I don’t really understand why the FIA can’t come along and tell us what the situation is regarding safety.”

Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr were represented in court, their lawyer noting that “My clients are expecting to drive. However neither driver, nor anyone from Sauber, was present in person.

Thursday could be a long day as the judges decided that those representing Van der Garde will have two hours to state their case, those representing Ericsson and Nasr half an hour, and Sauber one and a half hours.

Giedo van der Garde’s victory in a Melbourne court today was an extraordinary outcome, and one that the Sauber team itself has admitted it didn’t expect. The fact is that the Australian legal system has backed up a judgement made in Switzerland last week and told Sauber that Van der Garde should race. How that impacts Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr, and what happens over the next 48 hours remains, to be seen. This writer had an exclusive chat with the Dutchman on the steps of the courthouse.

Q: This applies to Australia, but what about the other 18 countries?

“I think this is something else that the lawyers have to speak about and solve it. I’m just looking forward to start this weekend. Like I said before I had a very good relationship with the team, and I still have. I think the team made a very good step during the winter. I’m glad about it, I’m looking forward to working together again, and to do well this weekend.”

Q: You say you have a good relationship but it’s going to be a very strange atmosphere. Everyone’s wondering how a team can work with a driver they were fighting in court?

“I don’t see any problems because in the end we had a good year last year, not only the results [of testing], on a personal side it was very good. I don’t see any problems with it. On the other hand now we have to stick together, put our heads in the same direction, and push very hard to get our first points.”

Q: A lot of people don’t realise that you only found out about Felipe Nasr after the press release came out in Brazil last year. How bad was that?

“Well, I think it’s not a good thing to speak about it now. I’m happy with this news and I’m looking forward to getting back behind the wheel again. It’s been a while, so let’s focus on that.”

Q: And all that stuff about the seat and so on – obviously that can be sorted quickly.

“I think you know and other people know that it can be sorted out quite quickly. In three or four hours you’re done with the seat, and you have a proper seat for the weekend.”

Q: The team’s argument was that it needed the drivers with the biggest sponsorship, and the future was under threat. That’s obviously the bigger story, isn’t it?

“Well that has been discussed already, and in the end this went off from the table. I’m happy to win this case now. Let’s focus on the weekend.”

Q: And it’s important that in a case like this a driver has actually won? We’ve seen similar case in the past…

“Oh yeah, I’m happy with that…”