Sauber team principal Frederic Vasseur cancelled the engine deal with Honda for 2018 just an hour after joining the Formula 1 team.
Honda had previously made a deal with Vasseur’s predecessor, Monisha Kaltenborn, but Vasseur felt it was too risky to go with the Japanese manufacturer after its tumultuous past three years supplying McLaren.
“I joined on July 17 at 9am, and the meeting [about Honda] was at 10am,” Vasseur told Autosport.
“For me it was important. It is never easy to change the engine supplier first, but Honda was not in very good shape.
“Plus, and probably most important for me, we were linked to McLaren for the gearbox with absolutely no internal resources to do our own one.
“I was convinced, as I had some contacts at McLaren, that they would do their best to leave [Honda]. So I could not be in a position to risk that.
“Imagine today if I had to request the Honda gearbox from McLaren? It would be an absolute nightmare.
“Being in the process of working on our 2018 car, we were not able to postpone the decision.”
Cancelling the deal to become Honda’s second F1 team allowed Vasseur to negotiate a new deal to continue with Ferrari, which concluded in Sauber receiving current-specification engines from the team and title sponsorship from Ferrari sister-brand Alfa Romeo in 2018.
Sauber has also signed Ferrari protégée and reigning Formula 2 champion Charles Leclerc as part of the strengthened relationship between the two teams.
