F1: Massa saddened by Sauber plight

Felipe Massa says he is concerned about the future of his former Formula 1 team Sauber, given its current financial situation.

The Swiss outfit has not paid its staff on time for the last two months because of cash-flow problems, with boss Monisha Kaltenborn working to find more backers for the team. Marcus Ericsson's Swedish sponsors stepped in with an early payment to ensure staff were paid for the month of March.

When asked if he was worried about Sauber, Massa said: "Yeah sure. Nobody likes to see that. Nobody likes to hear things like that about Sauber, even Lotus last year."

Massa, who made his F1 debut with Sauber in 2002 (pictured) and completed three seasons with the team before moving to Ferrari, said more needed to be done to level the playing field.

"When you look to the other sports, maybe basketball, you see most of the teams, they have money," he added. "When you see baseball and American football, most have money to take people from other teams, to invest. F1 it is not the case. There is a lot to do in F1 to improve.

"It would be nice to see teams with money with little difference between teams. If you see that, you will see different cars winning because it will be closer. To improve, you have to change some rules and it's not easy to change any rules in F1."

Originally on Autosport.com