On Wednesday 14 July, Alfa Romeo officially confirmed that it had extended the agreement as title sponsor of the Sauber team for the coming Formula 1 seasons, specifying that it would reserve annual evaluations to continue the partnership. The collaboration between the two brands, which began in 2018, will therefore continue, to the satisfaction of Jean-Philippe Imparato – the CEO of the Italian company -, present in the Silverstone paddock to explain the details of the agreement.
The 55-year-old French manager said: “Alfa Romeo represents passion, a sentiment shared with Sauber, with whom we share two other essential values of the brand, courage and future performance. For this is not a key element, we want to use the technological content of Formula 1 to prepare our cars of tomorrow “. After that, Jean-Philippe Imparato ruled out the possibility that Alfa Romeo could buy the Sauber team in the future: “It’s not a matter on the agenda and then this team has its own history. I know BMW bought the team in the past, but we don’t work that way. Sauber helped us build the very successful GTA. We don’t see the need to change things”.
In the interview granted to L’Equipe, on the specific question, Imparato explained that Alfa Romeo – via Ferrari – will not keep the right of choice over one of the team’s two drivers – as happened in recent years with Antonio Giovinazzi -: “To each his own work, so the answer is ‘no’, Ferrari will not choose a driver. There is only one person who will make this choice and his name is Fred Vasseur. I know how to sell cars, he knows how to lead a team. He has been doing it for 25 years and he knows how to do it very well. We have agreed that, ultimately, he will decide who will race for the team. And he will do it at the right time, as he has always done “, said the transalpine manager.
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