Sauber troubles deepen as Hulkenberg is set to leave team

Sauber's financial problems have apparently taken another twist as several German sources are now claiming that the team's lead driver, Nico Hulkenberg is set to leave the team at the end of the season.

Sauber have reportedly failed to pay Hulkenberg since May while team personnel has since been payed late as well. Although the team denies that people are not getting paid, the overall financial difficulties have been confirmed by team principal Monisha Kaltenborn as she negotiates with possible candidates to get the team out of its wild waters.

Swiss newspaper TagesAnzeiger reported last week that the team is in acute need of around 32 million dollar only to save the team. It is also mentioned that Sauber pays for its Ferrari engines by lending its state of the art windtunnel to the Scuderia.

The problems originate from the departure of BMW, requiring Peter Sauber to take control back of his team before leaving early this year. The subsequent financial crisis in Europe has caused further difficulties that the only Swiss F1 team have yet to overcome.

It is at the moment very unclear how the team is going to get out of the slump, but rumours suggest that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich may be interested in buying the team. The Sauber team currently already has a promotional deal in place with the football club. Then again, Abramovich has been linked to many takeovers in various sports, but rarely have those proved correct.