Robin Frijns ousted by the Sauber team

Robin Frijns is no longer the reserve driver for the Sauber team. The Dutchman hoped to follow the path of Esteban Gutiérrez, who was nurtured by Sauber and then promoted to a full-time position, but this will not be the case for the native of Maastricht.

The reigning Formula Renault 3.5 champion has not been retained by the Swiss team, which recently chose Sergey Sirotkin. The Russian will make his official debut at Monza this weekend. Frijns, who drove with Sauber during the young drivers’ tests at Silverstone in July, understands the situation.

« I don’t know what’s going to happen now. All I know is that I’m at home and everyone is in Monza. I’m free. I’m not blaming Sauber, they need to keep themselves alive as a team and I understand that. Obviously, they have a great history with young drivers, giving them their chance in Formula 1. But they also have a financial situation that everyone knows about, and that’s something that’s no longer within my control, » Frijns told Autosport.

Frijns has driven intermittently in GP2 this year for the Hilmer Motorsport team, but he was not selected by the German team for the Italian meeting of the F1 feeder series. He tries to keep his spirits up, hoping that a team will call on him: « I’ve had a lot of tough times this year. It’s disappointing, but there’s nothing I can do about it. I helped Hilmer Motorsport secure their first GP2 victory, which is a great achievement, so I’m proud. But apart from that, it’s been a terrible year. For the moment, I have no plan. The most important thing is that I am free now and can do what I want. Hopefully, someone will give me a chance to show what I can do. »