Giedo van der Garde has won his court battle against Sauber and could have engineered a move back into Formula One.
The 29-year-old was dismissed by Sauber at the end of last season with the team opting for a new driver line-up in the form of former Caterham driver Marcus Ericsson and GP2 racer Felipe Nasr.
However van der Garde who was the teams test driver last season claimed that he had been offered a race seat in June 2014 for the start of the 2015 Formula One World Championship.
The Dutchman took his case to a Swiss arbitration tribunal which ordered Sauber to keep him at the team and on Tuesday the Victoria court in Australia has also enforced this ruling.
Sauber have appealed the decision which will be heard later today. If this fails it is unclear what direction Sauber will take.
The team are strongly opposed to dropping either one of Ericsson or Nasr, however if they don’t they could risk contempt of court.
‘What we cannot do is jeopardise the safety of our team, or any other driver on the track, by having an unprepared driver in a car that has now been tailored to two other assigned drivers.’ Sauber Team principal Monisha Kalternborn told the BBC.
‘We are disappointed with this decision and now need to take time to understand what it means and the impact it will have on the start of our season,’
Van der Garde’s lawyers deny that he could be a safety risk, whilst the Dutchman has said he is more than ready: ‘I’ve been training the last three months flat out. I still have a very good relation with the team, and I’m looking forward to racing this weekend,’
The Vital Formula One Prediction Competition is back for the new 2015 Formula One World Championship season.
Brilliant in its simplicity, join today to show everyone just how great your knowledge of the sport is! Get your friends to join in and have a mini competition for bragging rights throughout the course of the new season.
Simply join the fun on our dedicated F1 Prediction Competition Forum.
Who will be racing for Sauber in Australia?
