Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsSauber

Van der Garde wins case over Sauber seat

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Giedo van der Garde has won his court case against Sauber, with the ruling stating he must race for the team this weekend in Australia.

Van der Garde successfully claimed Sauber had reneged on a deal which would see him racing for the team in 2015, calling for an urgent hearing at the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne on Monday. A decision was made on Wednesday, with Justice Clyde Croft telling the court: "The application is successful and will be enforced."

The ruling sees Sauber told to put van der Garde in one of the two cars racing this weekend, despite Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson having already been named as the team's two race drivers.

"I'm very fit and very strong," van der Garde said outside the court. "I'm looking forward to going back to the team and we'll work hard to do our best for this weekend. I still have a very good relation with the team. I'm looking forward to racing this weekend."

Sauber originally argued that putting van der Garde in the car would represent a safety risk having developed the C34 with Nasr and Ericsson in mind.

“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," team principal Monisha Kaltenborn said in a statement.

"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.”

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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.