Sauber F1 Will Lend Its Expertise To Alfa Romeo’s Road Cars – Or Maybe Not

Future Alfa Romeo road cars will reportedly receive Formula 1 influence thanks to the Italian marque’s involvement in the sport.

The Italian automaker recently became the official title sponsor and technical partner for the Sauber F1 team, which has been rebranded Alfa Romeo Racing, and has already commenced work on a non-F1 project. According to Piston Heads, the project could be for a road car with F1-inspired tech.

“We are already working on another project [outside of F1] together and you will see the result quite soon,” team principal Frederic Vasseur said. “It’s a huge opportunity for us [Sauber], but it will involve only the guys at the factory in Switzerland, as the trackside guys are focused on the racing.”

Vasseur went on to suggest that a family of Sauber-influenced Alfa Romeo road cars could be produced in the future.

What’s perplexing is the fact that FCA’s European design boss Klaus Busse dismissed the notion that Alfa Romeo’s and Sauber’s partnership could result in a series of high-performance vehicles.

“If you look at the Giulia and Stelvio Quadrifoglios as they are now, they’re already a handful,” he said.

“Unless you are a semi-pro race driver, you don’t need much more than that. So the idea that something [more extreme] will come in response to our F1 team; I don’t think that it’s necessary because our cars now are extremely capable as they are. Their Nurburgring lap times prove that.”

If that’s the case, then instead of butt-clenching Sauber-tuned performance Alfa Romeos, we’ll probably see some limited-edition models that feature only minor tweaks like, for example, a Giulia Quadrifoglio edition with Sauber-tuned suspension and sporty features like additional carbon fiber.

Either that, or Alfa Romeo needs to fix communications between its departments so they don’t contradict each other.