Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsSauber

Van der Garde demands Sauber race seat

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Giedo van der Garde has started legal proceedings against Sauber, demanding that he is given a race seat with the team for the 2015 season.

Having been Sauber reserve driver last season, van der Garde believed he was set for a race seat in 2015 but was left without one when the team named Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr as its race drivers in quick succession at the end of 2014.

Now van der Garde has opened urgent legal action, lodging documents on Wednesday and seeking a hearing at the Supreme Court of Victoria on Monday, wanting Sauber to give him one of the race seats.

"In early November 2014, Mr van de Garde was informed by Sauber's Chief Executive Officer, Ms Monisha Kaltenborn, that Sauber's two seats had been given to other drivers and that, as a consequence, Mr van der Garde would not have a place as a driver in the team in 2015,” documents published in Australian media claim.

The court documents also claim van der Garde then took his case to the Arbitration Institution in Switzerland, which ruled in his favour.

"The Respondent was ordered to refrain from taking any action the effect of which would be to deprive Mr van der Garde of his entitlement to participate in the 2015 Formula One Season as one of Sauber's two nominated race drivers.”

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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.