2004 Drivers Part 3 of 3 - Neel Jani
Sauber's Youngest
By Jamie Makin (10/1/2004)
January 12 2004
At the age of 19, Neel Jani is the youngest member of Sauber's driver lineup. Peter Sauber has been following the career of the young Swiss driver for several years and in April 2003 he gave him the opportunity to become Sauber's test driver.
Jani's climb up the motorsports ladder has been more rapid than his teammates Fisichella and Massa. Jani began karting in 1996 at the age of 13 and won his first karting championship in 1999. He moved into the Swiss Formula A Lista Junior championship in 2002 where he became the Swiss Champion in his debut season. 2002 saw him move to the Formula Renault 2000 championship where he placed second in the championship. Jani moved up to Formula Renault V6 for 2003 and had an impressive season landing him another second place in the championship. Throughout the year, he scored many pole positions, yielding him four wins and twelve podiums.
Jani only had a few opportunities in 2003 to test for Sauber but he has already made a strong impression on the team. He began with straight-line aerodynamic tests early in the season, then graduated to on-track testing with 2003 drivers Heidfeld and Frentzen. He was several seconds off the pace of his more experienced teammates in these early tests, but in a test session in December, he was running at the same pace as his new teamates Fisichella and Massa. His fitness has improved over the year, and he has developed a good working relationship with the team.
2004 will present Jani more opportunities to show his skills behind the wheel of the Sauber. A new rule will allow teams below fourth place in the championship to run third cars during Friday practices session of grand prix weekends. Although Sauber has declared they will not run a third car at every race, Jani will have a chance to drive at the ones they do participate in. This will allow him to learn the tracks and gain experience working with the team during race weekends. It will be interesting to see how he grows and develops with the Sauber team.