Niki Lauda Bashes Sauber Over Lodging Complaint To The EU About F1 Revenue Split

Mercedes has already clinched the 2015 Constructors’ championship and is nearly there on the Drivers’, with Lewis Hamilton winning back-to-back titles; yet not everyone’s happy.

Non-executive chairman, and former three-time F1 world champion, Niki Lauda has recently slammed Sauber and its team boss Monisha Kalternborn for acting, as he says, against the interest of the sport.

At the end of last month Sauber and Force India filed a complaint with the European Commission. Both are unhappy about the way F1 revenue is split and the way smaller teams are not included in decision-making.

Apparently, the Austrian took issue with that: “Sauber is part of a racing community”, he said. “They signed the Concorde Agreement, where everything was stipulated to the detail, and then they say ‘This is suddenly not valid.’ F1 has always had teams that win and teams that are behind.”

Lauda being Lauda, he couldn’t stop there. “Everyone is responsible for himself. Sauber should first fight against their own inabilities. If they have drivers who have paid and cannot race, or their cars are confiscated before a Grand Prix, that is stupid”, he added, talking about the Australian GP and the team’s dispute with Giedo van der Garde, who took them to court over a breach of contract.

Everyone is entitled to his own opinion and Lauda is a part of F1 since, well, all of the current drivers were born. One might wonder though why he didn’t lash out at Force India, too.

Well, maybe their respective engine suppliers have something to do with that. Force India uses a Merc unit; Sauber, on the other hand, gets is hybrid V6s by a certain team based in Maranello…

Story Reference: ESPN