Indeed, it was that our esteemed forum colleague @MonSpaNur seemed to be struggling with some of it
It's no great loss. In fact, it's no loss at all.
That was my first thought as well.
But then, he's hardly been a superstar and without this drive he's likely never to get another, so I figure he's rolling the dice and hoping that he has a Maldonado-at-Spain moment to make anyone want to hire an unspectacular litigious driver.
Hopefully the door doesn't hit him on the arse on the way out.
I don't necessarily think that it's a cover-up. I am sure that they are working with the FIA, and that is the only organisation that they need to work with. It's only an issue if they're hiding something from the FIA. The "controversy" is only coming about because McLaren aren't making everything available to the public, but they have no obligation to do so.
VDG has always been like that. I think that he has really tried to position himself as the foremost Dutchman in motorsport. Every time there was a buzz about someone like Robin Frijns or Max Verstappen, a story about van der Garde - which I am sure came from his camp - would follow, linking him to various seats, and usually a more competitive one than anything Frijns or Verstappen was under consideration for. I think that he is really trying to cling to the idea that the grid would be incomplete without him, but hasn't recognised that he had his turn and didn't do anything to deserve another shot. I know every racing driver wants to believe that they are the best, but the likes of van der Garde take things too far.
It's a very unusual move. There has never been a case of a driver successfully launching legal action like this to gain a seat. VDG has never tested the Sauber, and has not lost any money since he way paying for the seat and none of his sponsors appear on the car. Successfully getting the seat would likely put the entire team in jeopardy by invalidating the contracts with Ericsson and/or Nasr, and the team could reasonably park his car and argue that they could not afford to compete. There is no set of circumstances whereby VDG comes out on top.
VDG put his "own" money up to secure the seat. His salary would have come out of that. If the money is returned, he has no financial loss as he hasn't competed.
Like I said, I can't imagine that they would have terminated the contract without cause.
It's reportedly costing Manor £1 million per race for the 2014-spec Ferrari engines. How much are they charging Sauber for 2015 engines? If VDG gets the seat, the first thing they will do is park the car because it's too expensive.
He has reportedly said that if the Australian courts rule in favour of Sauber, then he will launch action in Malaysia, and if the Malaysian courts rule in favour of the team, he'll do it again in China and again in Bahrain, and he'll keep doing it until he gets the seat he considers to be rightfully his.
Sounds like the work of someone who wasn't told the word "NO" as a child.
He's a bit like that. Like I said, he has always tried to position himself as the foremost Dutch driver in the sport, even though he doesn't have the nous to back it up. I don't think he is someone who hasn't heard the word "no", but rather unable to reconcile the idea that his time has passed or that the grid can survive without him.
Possibly, which is why it seems so implausible. If van der Garde wins the case, the court cannot force the team to let him out of the pits. They could justifiably argue that because van der Garde replaced a driver who brought substantial funding to the team, that other driver's contract is invalid. Since they would be using the money that driver bought to fund the team, invalidating that contract would mean that they could not spend said money, thus making it too expensive to send van der Garde out.
It's a funny position because of the relationship between the team and their drivers. Since Ericsson signed first, van der Garde could argue that he should have Nasr's seat, as the team could have conceivably taken him alongside Nasr. But Sauber's primary backer is Banco do Brasil, who are funding Nasr's drive, so van der Garde could target Ericsson's seat. The catch is that it's believed that Ericsson got the seat with an up-front payment, which the team spent developing the C34 chassis and clearing debts, and Ericsson's backers won't want to see him forced aside. So he can't take Ericsson's seat, and nor can he take Nasr's.
