Sauber’s new Technical Director knows what needs to be done

James Key

"I'm looking forward to the first race with the team," said Sauber's new Technical Director James Key. "I arrived in Hinwil after the Easter weekend and met a lot of people. I got a very good impression of what's going on. There is obviously work to be done, but the spirit within the team and the motivation are very high."

Key joined Jordan Grand Prix in 1998 spending several years as a Data Engineer, then became Race Engineer for Takuma Sato. Following a year in the Wind Tunnel he transferred to the Vehicle Dynamics department, eventually becoming the department head during the team's final few seasons as Jordan Grand Prix. Shortly after the team's ownership transferred to MF1 Racing he became Technical Director during the 2005 following a brief period as Technical Coordinator. He was one of the youngest Technical Directors of a Formula One team, at the age of 33 years, along with Sam Michael (born in 1971) who became the technical director of the Williams F1 team at the age of 33 during the 2004 season.

Key retained his position during the team's transition through Spyker F1 to Force India F1, but decided to leave his position prior to the 2010 season. He joined the Sauber team to replace outgoing Technical Director Willy Rampf in April.

"What is now beginning to emerge is the direction we need to go in. Everyone is pushing very hard, and we are making plans at the moment on the direction we should go in the future to keep developing. I haven't been to the track this year, so it's going to be interesting to see how things are run, learn a bit about the tires and talk to the drivers. It will be the first time I see the C29, so it will be good to have a close look at it along with Willy Rampf and go through it in detail.

"As far as the circuit is concerned, it's a fairly similar downforce level to what we have experienced on the past three circuits. It's another purpose built track with some interesting features. There's a very long straight, therefore downforce is a compromise. It's a fairly high grip track, which might mean taking a little bit of wing off. Braking stability and traction are very important, and you have those two snail like corners which are tricky for the drivers. We have to see how the cars and the tires deal with it. We hope for the best and will try to get some points."