The Judge in Giedo Van der Garde's case against Sauber in Australia has deferred his decision until Wednesday.

The Dutch racer has taken Sauber to the Supreme Court of Victoria claiming that the Swiss team reneged on a deal to give him a full race seat this season. He is demanding to be allowed to drive the C34 in this weekend's season opener.

However, lawyers acting for Sauber argue that putting the Dutchman into the car would create an unacceptable risk of death, citing the fact that he has not been fitted for the car or driven it.

"Mr van der Garde has no experience driving the C34 Ferrari and would not have sufficient time to learn," Sauber's lawyer, Rodney Garratt QC, told the court.

However, Tom Clarke, acting for Van der Garde, cited a case in 2012 when a driver was fitted for his seat in just three days.

"Teams are very flexible to make adjustments for every specific driver," he argued.

He also claimed that clauses in the contracts of Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr, who were both in court for the hearing, allow them to be replaced without breaching them.

"Sauber does have the ability to substitute Mr Van der Garde this weekend for one or another driver without falling into breach of those existing contracts," he said.

Will Houghton QC, acting for Ericsson and Nasr, told the court that the pair are both heavily sponsored and bring "many millions of euros" to the Hinwil outfit.

Justice Clyde Croft has reserved his decision until 10:00 on Wednesday.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by gturner38, 09/03/2015 19:53

"I don't really see how the FIA could dictate the terms of a team signing a contract with a driver by requiring a Super License to have already been issued. For starters, many drivers need to do test miles in order to get licensed, so they have to be signed to the team first. No team in their right mind are going to let someone test without retaining the rights to that driver in F1 first. Secondly, it doesn't address circumstances like Vettel, Ricciardo, and Hamilton being signed as development drivers. For the same reason F1 teams aren't going to hand out test time to essentially "free agent" drivers, they aren't going to finance a career through the feeder series without having the first option to put the kid in their car.

Most importantly, it wouldn't have any impact on this situation. Nasr met the qualifications of a Super License by finishing 3rd in GP2, so they have three drivers with legitimate licenses on file.

As to the question of whether or not Van der Garde has a legitimate contract that can only be satisfied by putting him in the car, I find it doubtful that his contract has no option for him to be replaced if the two drivers who came after him have such clauses. A buyout wouldn't be much better for Sauber, but there almost certainly has to be that option."

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2. Posted by Canuck, 09/03/2015 14:47

"Since both Sauber and Manor are powered by Ferrari and Manor needs a second driver, could a deal not be worked out there? "

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3. Posted by Chris SA, 09/03/2015 9:22

"Sauber has treated this matter very poorly, if he had a binding contract then they should have terminated the contract legally, paid whatever was to pay and got on with it. Now they sit in a lose lose situation. F1 does not need this image, all because of pay drivers. The FIA needs to do something about these pay driver appointments. For starters, no contract may be entered into between driver and team unless a Super Licence has been issued. You must be bloody stupid to sign three drivers to a two car team. "

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Ruling in Van der Garde case deferred

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