New Sauber technical director Mark Smith says the potential of the team is "enormous".

Smith will start work for Sauber on July 13, slotting in to the existing technical committee - which comprises of the heads of car performance, aerodynamics an the design groups - to take responsibility for overlapping tasks.

Having previously worked for Jordan, Red Bull, Force India and most recently Caterham, Smith has a lot of experience in F1 and says he was convinced to join Sauber based on the facilities available to him in his new role.

“When I saw the facilities for the first time in Hinwil, I immediately realised the possibilities I would have," Smith said. "The wind tunnel, the supercomputer and the machine shop – everything is on a very high technical level. And not to forget the competence of the team.

"These facts were compelling reasons and arguments for me changing to Hinwil. The potential of Sauber is enormous, which is not self-evident in a constantly changing Formula One world. The factory in Hinwil has all the requirements to be competitive in Formula One.”

Sauber currently sits seventh in the constructors' championship with 21 points after eight races, having failed to score a single point in 2014.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.

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