Giedo van der Garde has won his arbitration case in the Supreme Court of Victoria.
The case concerned the enforcement of a judgement against Sauber that was made in the arbitration court in Geneva last week, so as such the Australian proceedings did not cover the rights and wrongs of the contract and so on.
In essence the judge dismissed Sauber's arguments about safety as not relevant to the case.
I'm very fit and very strong,” said the Dutchman. “I'm looking forward to going back to the team and we'll work hard to do our best for this weekend. I'm the fittest ever, I've been training the last three months flat out, and I'm looking forward to going back to the team. I had a very good relationship, I still have a very good relation with the team. I'm looking forward to racing this weekend.”
Regarding the other drivers he said: “It's up to them what they are going to do, and up to the team. It's not my thing.
“I'm happy that we won the case, and that we stand here. Now I'm looking forward to getting back to business.”
Sauber responded to the Giedo van Garde verdict by once again bringing up the safety argument in relation to how prepared the Dutchman is.
In a statement the team said “the outcome is unfortunately not as expected.”
Team boss Monisha Kaltenborn added: “We are disappointed with this decision and now need to take time to understand what it means and the impact it will have on the start of our season. What we cannot do is jeopardize the safety of our team, or any other driver on the track, by having an unprepared driver in a car that has now been tailored to two other assigned drivers.”
The team added that “further details will be published at a later stage.”
