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"The recently announced influx of Russian capital into the financially troubled Sauber team raises serious questions about the state of Formula One.  How solid is the future of the series when one of its more respected teams has racked up a reported debt of over 100 million Euros and is forced to accept an untried teenager as part of a rescue package from new sponsors?  Peter Sauber&amp;#039;s team has been in Formula One in one form or another since 1993 following an illustrious sports car career. It has always been considered one of the better midfield teams, and many of its technical innovations have been adopted by other competitors. Sauber has been training ground for young talent, and was Red Bull&amp;#039;s first entry into Formula One sponsorship in the mid 90&amp;#039;s.  Red Bull would eventually sell their stake in the Swiss team when Peter Sauber decided to hire an unproven young driver with extremely limited experience. His name? Kimi Raikkonen. At the time, Raikkonen had only 23 open wheel races under his belt and didn&amp;#039;t even hold the required FIA Superlicense.  Ironically, Red Bull wanted Enrique Bernoldi for the drive, but Sauber, a man with vast experience and a keen eye for speed, insisted on the Finn and went to bat for him. He eventually convinced then FIA president Max Mosley to grant Raikkonen the license.  As part of the sponsorship deal announced this week, a new untried racer with very limited experience and no FIA Superlicense will get a race seat with Sauber. His name is Sergey Sirotkin, but the circumstances are strikingly different.   While Kimi was hired because his talent, you would be hard pressed to describe Sirotkin&amp;#039;s career as stellar. The young Russian has competed in minor formulas, including Formula Abarth Europe and Auto GP. Both series with little real competition. This year, Sirotkin has raced in the more competitive and relevant Formula Renault 3.5, but with modest results. Sirotkin does hold an ace, however. His father is head of the National Institute of Aviation Technology&amp;amp;lt; http://www.niat.ru/&amp;amp;gt;, one of the sponsors in the rescue deal. The company and a state-owned business development group backed by Boris Rotenberg, owner of SMP Bank, stepped in to rescue Sauber. Both have an interest in promoting a future Russian Grand Prix, and Rotenberg has ties to the Putin government.  Rotenberg is an enthusiastic amateur driver competing in Ferrari Challenge and Blancpain Endurance Series. The banker is also sponsoring a Red Bull style development program for young Russian drivers through French-based SMP Racing. His good relations with Maranello should help both settle Sauber&amp;#039;s reported 15 million Euro debt for engines and assure a future supply of Maranello powerplants.  Like Raikkonen, Sirotkin still lacks an FIA superlicense, but as this deal was brokered by Nicolas Todt, son of former Ferrari team manager and Jean Todt, current FIA president, chances are it won&amp;#039;t be a problem for long. Nicholas Todt currently serves as manager for Felipe Massa and Jules Bianchi. He&amp;#039;s also co-owner of a GP2 team and has ambitions of entering Formula One as a team boss. Once the dust has settled, expect to see him step into Sauber, perhaps along with Felipe Massa, an experienced driver to balance Sirotkin&amp;#039;s Formula One debut.  Sauber lives but at what cost? "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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