formula one breathed a sigh of relief in the sunny early saturday morning at melbourne when sauber's former dutch driver giedo van der garde abandoned his legal action against the team he had been suing them for dropping him despite having a contract to race for them this season, starting with sunday's australian grand prix courts in melbourne found in his favour, saying he had a right to drive however, he has not got a super licence, so could not giedo van der garde has decided to drop his case against former side sauber after settling out of court  marcus ericsson (left) and felipe nasr (right) will race for sauber in the absence of van der garde  this brought about an impasse: sauber would be in contempt of court if they left him out but they could not put him in according to the fia rules heads we knocked together over friday night and van der garde settled out of court van der garde wrote on facebook: 'with respect to the interest of motorsport, and f1 in particular, i have decided to give up my legal rights to race this weekend at the melbourne grand prix 'as i am a passionate race driver this decision has been very difficult for me 'however i also wish to respect the interest of the fia, sauber motorsport, as well as nasr and ericsson' crucially, van der garde has made clear further negotiations need to take place, however, before the matter can finally be closed the 29 year old added: 'my management will continue talks with sauber early next week to find a mutually acceptable solution for the current situation that has now arisen 'i am confident such solution will be found and i will inform the media once done' van der garde dropped the case against sauber out of respect to 'motorsport, and f1 in particular' marcus ericssson and felipe nasr will race for them in his place both were named on sauber's race entry and took part in second practice on friday, having sat out of the first session while the lawyers argued with three valid driver contracts and only two race seats available, sauber and kaltenborn had found themselves mired in controversy given sauber's financial struggles last year, when approached by two drivers in ericsson and nasr who could offer considerable sums of money in sponsorship, both the swede and brazilian were signed but with van der garde on contract, and despite also having paid up front   albeit a figure less than that of ericsson and nasr   the battle became legal it remains to be seen what 'mutually acceptable solution' can now be ironed out between the two parties whatever the outcome, under pressure team principal monisha kaltenborn, a trained lawyer, has emerged from the sorry mess in a poor light sauber team principal monisha kaltenborn insists she will not resign from her role despite the recent saga  at the circuit on friday, while unable to talk about the case as it remained ongoing, she did insist however she remained competent to carry on with her role as team boss 'i don't see it (the case) having any effect,' kaltenborn said 'we have a very clear view of what we did we took action after thinking about it for a while 'for us that was very clear, but the outcome is different' pressed on whether she had considered resigning, kaltenborn added: 'i've not considered that 'this whole matter does not have any effect on the way we work, the way the team works' kaltenborn did concede, however, the past week had damaged morale given the team's name had been dragged through the courts 'it's had a very negative impact on the team because the situation was, for a while, unclear,' she added 'we now have certain actions taken against the team, and we are acting accordingly'
giedo van der garde sauber  van der garde dutchman sauber monisha kaltenborn
giedo van der garde was planning to sue former side sauber . sauber dropped van der garde despite having contract to race . the dutchman and sauber have decided to settle out of court . under fire team principal monisha kaltenborn insists she will not resign 