Giedo van der Garde arrived at Albert Park early on Friday and headed straight into the Sauber garage.
The development followed his lawyers filing a contempt of court action against the Swiss team in which Sauber was instructed to compile a list of its assets currently in Melbourne. The van der Garde camp, having cleared every legal hurdle so far in enforcing the Dutchman’s 2015 race contract, had argued Sauber was doing nothing to facilitate the 29-year-old’s participation in the 2015 season opener.
Indeed, Sauber had even argued in court there was “no practical way we can allow (and) facilitate Mr van der Garde in this new C34 Ferrari which he has not previously” driven. But had Sauber not complied with the supreme court’s orders, its 2015 race cars might have been immediately seized by Australian authorities.
So, with Friday practice looming at Albert Park, van der Garde obtained a paddock pass, slipped on the shorter Marcus Ericsson’s overalls and had a seat fitting in the Swedish driver’s number 9-branded car. However, he will not be racing in Melbourne this weekend due to not having the mandatory F1 super licence credential. Sources report that van der Garde’s first race for Sauber is therefore now scheduled to be in Malaysia in two weeks.
