Sauber buyout close to 'official announcement'

Sauber are closing in on a deal to bail the Swiss team out of their perilous financial situation.

This week, it emerged that unpaid employee salaries for May and June had suddenly been paid, amid reports that an international investment group is about to buy Sauber.

"Obviously there is a change in atmosphere because now everyone believes again that there is a future," team manager Beat Zehnder said in Austria.

The deal could be so far advanced that an "official announcement" could be just days away, a Sauber team spokesman said at the Red Bull Ring.

"In the next two weeks we hope to make an official announcement of great importance to the team," spokesman Robert Hopoltseder told Brazil's Globo.

Sauber have yet to pick any points in the 2016 championship.