Sauber chief ditched Honda after one hour in the job

Sauber chief Fred Vasseur has revealed that when he joined his new team last year the very first thing he did was inform Honda that the upcoming deal to receive engines from the Japanese manufacturer was cancelled, even if it was not an easy decision.V

Vasseur has made a name for himself in junior categories of motor racing, but is known for his no-nonsense approach and was the man Sauber approached as chief, with him taking over officially in July.

Over the past few seasons, Honda have suffered major engine reliability issues and after the 2017 campaign they were ditched by McLaren, who opted to take on Renault parts instead. Vasseur claimed this was part of his decision to cancel the contract with Honda.

"I joined on July 17 at 9am, and the meeting was at 10am," he told Motorsport.

"For me it was important. It is never easy to change the engine supplier first, but Honda was not in a very good shape. Plus, and probably most important for me, was that we were linked to McLaren for the gearbox with absolutely no internal resources to do our own one.

"I was convinced, as I had some contacts at McLaren, that they would do their best to leave. So I could not be in a position to risk that. Imagine today if I had to request the Honda gearbox from McLaren. It would be an absolute nightmare.

"Being in the process of working on our 2018 car, we were not able to postpone the decision."

Before joining Alfa Romeo Sauber, Vasseur was previously in a senior role with Renault, but he opted to leave after butting heads with technical director, Cyril Abiteboul. He has joined his new team with a point to prove.

"You know I spent the last 27 years of my life on track and for sure you want to succeed. You don't want to finish like this," he continued.

"But it is nothing to do with revenge or something like this. I was always looking for the good project for me in F1 and I think this one was perfect for me. I didn't want to say that Renault wasn't a good one. But I had some troubles to fit with the system, so it is much better for me to leave and to stop because I have some other projects in my life. And I stopped.

"I was quite happy to have a break – even if after six months, the break was a bit too long! My wife pushed me to find something else, and said: 'don't stay at home anymore'.

"Then we started to discuss with Sauber. The discussion was a good one, the project was a good one because it was much more fitting with my expectations and the projects I had at the beginning of my career."