F1: Sauber sells Heidfeld's seat to Mexican

Being blunt, Sauber has survived 2010 on a wing and a prayer - with the emphasis on prayer. Their car, its white paintwork barely troubled by sponsor's logos, has been a decent mid-field competitor despite somewhat confused parentage. BMW pulled out of F1 in 2009 and told Peter Sauber he couldn't have the team because he couldn't come up with enough money.

They relented - to a point - but only if the name BMW remained in the name. Which was more than bizarre because Ferrari power plants were provided on the understanding that their name was in the name, too. Too many name? Too right.

Heidfeld was drafted in to see if he could outperform Pedro de la Rosa and the German had his first of what is supposed to be five races in Singapore a little over a week ago. He didn't shine but he wasn't rubbish, either and, given that he had had no testing in the car, Singapore is hardly the track to learn it on.

A Mexican multi-millionaire, Carlos Slim, has been threatening some kind of involvement in F1 for some time. Some say that with an estimated net worth of USD53,500 million he is the world's richest man; some others say he is the second richest. Even richer, then, than Bernie Ecclestone and the one thing that Bernie respects above all else is a shed load of money - especially if some of it can be diverted his way.

And so Telmex, the major player in Mexico's communications systems, will continue to sponsor their driver Sergio Perez and Telmex will put its stickers on Sauber's cars in return for Perez being granted a seat.

This is the deal that was rumoured for USA F1 before it crashed and burned.

But that's not the only time that Carlos Slim's name has been mentioned in Formula One. Italian newspaper La Stampa got it woefully wrong in December 2008 reporting "unofficial" announcements that Slim had bought the Honda team for one US dollar intending to invest approx USD300 per year in it.

Peter Sauber was damning about what he sees as selling off logo-space on the cheap: in September he told F1.Com "It would have been an easy thing to plaster the car with advertisements from sponsors that pay less than what you think is the true value.I know that it is happening at other teams, but I say that it is the wrong road to go down - at least for us. If you are only showing off that you have sponsors, whilst the revenue is not there, it doesn’t help."

That might have been a side-swipe at BrawnGP's 2009 Virgin stickers, widely thought to have been one the bargains of the century - especially as it provided the Virgin 2010 team with some advance publicity for their entry into the sport. Sauber tried to sideline talk of a potential link with Slim saying that he visited many teams in the pit lane but, as a sponsor of Sauber test driver Esteban Gutierrez, of course he spent a bit more time with them.

Sauber is adamant that this is a sponsorship deal not a sell-out.

Heidfeld might have a different view.