By Jamie Makin
March 31 2005

There seems to be no animosity between Peter Sauber and his former sponsor Red Bull, as Dietrich Mateschitz has offered to "loan" Sauber one of his team's drivers should the need arise. Red Bull has been keen on replacing incumbent Christian Klien with Vitantonio Liuzzi for the San Marino Grand Prix in three week's time. This move may come in spite of Klien's very solid performances this season, where he scored points in both opening rounds. Klien would be ineligible to drive Red Bull's third car on Friday as he has too many races under his belt now.

The problem for Sauber is he would be ineligible to drive their proposed third car as well. So Klien could only move to Sauber if Jacques Villeneuve left the team. There have been plenty of rumours swirling around about that possibility, but no concrete evidence that it's going to happen. Even Mateschitz himself seemed unconvinced. "I do not wish to start ideas which might prove irrelevant. Villeneuve might suddenly regain his old form, so we’ll wait and see," the Red Bull owner said.

Mateschitz's other three drivers - Vitantonio Liuzzi, Scott Speed and Neel Jani - would all be better fits for Sauber's vacancy of a third driver. Neel Jani is no stranger to the Swiss team, having been under contract to them for the past two seasons and performing several tests and PR events for them. But his primary role for Red Bull this season is to race in the new GP2 series which he would have to abandon if he moves up to F1. That issue, combined with his limited experience in F1 make him unlikely to return to Sauber.

American Scott Speed recently tested for Red Bull racing and is the likely candidate to fill Liuzzi's Friday role at the team if Klien is shown the door. Red Bull would not likely relinquish him to Sauber as one of their main goals in F1 is to place an American driver in the series. Odds are they will be keeping Scott Speed to themselves for now and look set to move him into their own Friday role.

This speculation leaves last season's F3000 Champion Vitantonio Liuzzi the most likely candidate to move to Sauber. Liuzzi seemed sure to race for Sauber this season and tested for them before the team's sudden decision to take Jacques Villeneuve on board instead. It is conceivable that Liuzzi could take the Friday drive at Sauber which would allow Speed to test for Red Bull while Klien gets to keep his race seat. This would continue to give Liuzzi valuable F1 experience while supplying Sauber with a driver capable of filling Villeneuve's shoes should he leave the team.

"We have quite a density of talent available," Mateschitz told Motorsport Aktuell. "Now it is up to us to hone that talent or to lend it to other teams. And this we will do. We want to give both [Klien and Liuzzi] enough experience that they are fully serviceable drivers next year."

Could this all speculation have less to do with Sauber's need for a driver and more to do with Mateschitz's overzelousness to hire young talent without any real idea of what to do with them? For now this scenario seems to solve more of Red Bull's problems than Sauber's. Although it creates the biggest problem of all for Red Bull's David Coulthard as it sounds like Mateschitz is determined to have Christian Klien and Vitantonio Liuzzi as his team's drivers for next season, leaving the veteran Scotsman out in the cold. And you'll of course remember that Coulthard, too, was at one time linked with a drive at Sauber . . . .

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