With Sauber’s current engine deal with Ferrari set to expire at the end of the season, the Swiss team are considering a partnership with either Honda or Mercedes for 2018 and beyond if they decide against renewing their Ferrari deal.
While it would be easy to make the conclusion that conjuring a deal with Mercedes should be top of their priority list, considering there is little doubt that it’s the most powerful power unit on the grid right now, there is an argument to suggest that a switch to become Honda’s first customer team, would actually be the most logical move for the team.
Let’s start off with what is undoubtedly a small team’s biggest concern; money. It is believed that Honda currently supply McLaren with free power units and although Sauber is far from the level of McLaren in terms of resources and history, a similar deal could be reached, especially considering that Sauber is in a position of power.
Mercedes have arguably shown that the more teams you supply, the greater the development rate of your engine, and Honda are making it no secret that they want a customer team in order to help the development of their engine, after three seasons of solely supplying McLaren and suffering from a lack of data compared to their rivals.
Furthermore, Sauber would certainly get a free engine deal if they were to run McLaren Honda’s young drivers in their cars, which certainly wouldn’t be a bad thing considering their programme contains the likes of 2016 Formula Renault 2.0 champion Lando Norris and GP3 race winner Nyck de Vries.
They would no longer need to look for pay drivers to fill their seats and while Mercedes and Ferrari would also offer some very talented young drivers, Sauber as the only customer would receive their very best juniors as opposed to being third in the Mercedes customer pecking order.
Honda needs Sauber a lot more than Mercedes need the Swiss team, further enhancing the idea of a close relationship between the two, and one that could come in handy if McLaren does pull the plug on their partnership, and Honda decide to partner with a more patient and co-operative outfit like Sauber.
There is no doubting that if Sauber does switch to Honda power for 2018, that they will be at the bottom of the pecking order once again, however, there is great potential in entering into a partnership with the Japanese supplier. Choosing Mercedes power, grounds Sauber to be behind Force India and Williams who at present, have far superior resources and relationship with the German supplier.
If they opt for Honda power, and the Japanese supplier develops its power unit onto the level of the Mercedes within say the next five years, Sauber will reap the rewards and will have spent considerably less in pursuit of this compared to their midfield rivals.
Partnering with Honda isn’t the easy choice for Sauber. They will suffer in the short term and are arguably dooming themselves to the foot of the championship for 2018, but the switch could provide them with the springboard to return to the front of the midfield. With a rumoured McLaren-Honda divorce on the horizon, the possibility of a full partnership with a manufacturer again is no longer a pipe dream, whisper it, but it could even put Sauber on the top step of the podium once again.
