Alfa Romeo-Sauber Confirm 2018 Lineup

The newly rebranded Alfa Romeo-Sauber team announced that Marcus Ericsson and Charles Leclerc will be their 2018 race drivers. The Swiss marquee then unveiled a red and white livery, with a large Alfa Romeo logo on the engine cover. Sauber will have closer ties with Ferrari next season through the deal with Alfa Romeo and effectively become a Ferrari B-team. Regarding the livery, it isn’t the final version and there is still room for

The Alfa Romeo-Sauber multi-year deal includes strategic, commercial and technological cooperation. This enhances an arrangement that already included use of the latest specification Ferrari engine. Until last year, Sauber had been using year-old engines. Alfa was last involved in F1 in 1979 and raced until 1985. The Italian brand has not had any high-profile motorsport programme since its touring car efforts of the 1990s and early 2000s.

Marcus Ericsson had been battling with Ferrari junior driver Antonio Giovinazzi for the second seat at Sauber. The initial idea of an Alfa Romeo team came from Ferrari CEO Sergio Marchionne. He wanted a proving ground for young Italian racers until they were ready to move up the ladder. However, Ericsson’s close ties with Sauber’s owners eventually won out.

The announcement was made at the launch of the new Alfa Romeo partnership in Italy on Saturday. Marchionne confirmed that Leclerc will be stepping up to F1 after a dominant F2 campaign.

Sauber had undergone a massive shake-over this year after former team principal Monisha Kaltenborn stepped down in favour of Frederic Vasseur. Earlier in the season, an idea to run Honda engines in 2018 began to circulate. But Vasseur was quick to burst that bubble. Vasseur believed that closer relations to Ferrari would be more beneficial to the team from Hinwil.

It is believed that the deal was for a customer engine and one of Ferrari’s young drivers thrown in as a bonus. Leclerc’s speed and dominance this year made it clear that he was ready for F1. His fellow Ferrari Academy driver, Giovinazzi was in contention for much of the year to step up to a full-time F1 seat. But Sauber’s management team had strong ties with Ericsson’s Swedish backers. It is believed that their involvement swayed the final decision in Marcus’ favour. But all it not lost for Giovinazzi, Sauber has however confirmed that the young Italian will be the team’s third driver.