Sauber given numbers 26 and 27 for 2010
2 February, 2010
Feb.2 (GMM) Sauber’s drivers will wear the numbers 26 and 27 in 2010.
Despite sticking with an unchanged official team name BMW Sauber F1 Team, resulting in the awkward FIA designation ‘BMW Sauber-Ferrari’, it was decided on Monday that the Hinwil based team should not receive the numbers 9 and 10.
Given Toyota’s withdrawal and the fact that BMW-Sauber finished 2009 in sixth place, those numbers should in theory have been awarded to Sauber this year.
But at the end of November, prior to Peter Sauber’s takeover, the FIA issued an entry list that did not feature the Swiss team.
Moreover, giving 9 and 10 at short notice to Sauber would have also resulted in altered race numbers for Renault, Force India, Toro Rosso and all four of F1′s new teams.
Rubens Barrichello’s Williams FW32 at Valencia on Monday was already sporting the number 9.
The issue was discussed at Monday’s Paris meeting of the F1 Commission.
The Swiss newspaper Blick reported afterwards that Kamui Kobayashi will wear the number 26 in 2010, with Pedro de la Rosa to use the highest number in the field (27).
Related posts:
- More sponsor branding expected on Sauber
- BMW Sauber launches their C29 2010 F1 car
- Sauber race numbers to be decided Monday
- Sauber sign Pedro de la Rosa for 2010
- De la Rosa to Sauber 2010 deal expected
