---
title: "Sauber looking to drivers with financial backing for 2017"
canonical: "https://readmotorsport.com/2016/09/28/sauber-looking-drivers-financial-backing-2017/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Bethonie Waring"
section: "F1 News"
published: "2016-09-28T12:30:04Z"
modified: "2016-09-28T12:30:04Z"
---

# Sauber looking to drivers with financial backing for 2017

Finances will still be an important factor in Sauber’s driver line-up next season, despite a cash injection from new owners.

The team’s current drivers – Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr – bring funding to the team, but their contracts expire at the end of this year, and the team are now assessing their options for the 2017 season.

Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn has told Autosport it’s unlikely the team will hire two drivers without financial support.

“\[Financial support\] would help us in implementing our targets quicker and be a big help in the overall plan we have,” she said.

“There is a close link to the more you have, the more you can test, and that’s what you need to do.

“It would be very beneficial and good the way we are going and help us to do things quicker.”

Kaltenborn is confident Sauber is attractive enough to secure the drivers it needs to recover. The funding from their new owners has allowed Sauber to recruit technical staff and develop the car. The Sauber of next year will not, Kaltenborn believes, be at the same level as this year.

“I can assure you one thing, we are far more attractive now than we were a few months ago. It speaks for the quality of the team as some people tried to reduce this team for two years when we were not strong. We had two crappy years, 2014 and this year, but this is not Sauber. There are some people out there who see this.”

It doesn’t seem like we’ll have a driver line up from Sauber for a while yet, though. Kaltenborn says there is no timeline for the decision yet, but there are options on the table.