JANUARY 8, 2003
New Sauber fires up
The new Sauber C22 was fired up for the first time yesterday at the team's headquarters in Hinwil. The car was bang on schedule and will now be despatched to Italy where it will start testing at the Ferrari test track at Fiorano on Thursday with Nick Heidfeld expected to do the initial shakedown runs.
There were no problems at all with the firing up. The team will be holding an official launch in Zurich in early February but the car will be running before then. There is no news at the moment about the team's sponsorship package but it seems increasingly likely that the team will renew its sponsorship arranagements with Red Bull. The team will, of course, retain backing from Credit Suisse and Petronas.
Toyota will launch its new challenger, called the TF103 at Paul Ricard later today with drivers Olivier Panis and Cristiano da Matta giving the car its first runs.