Current Alfa Romeo Racing (formerly Sauber)

Sauber

FIA Entry: Sauber F1 Team
Car 16: Kamui Kobayashi
Car 17: Sergio Perez
Engine: Ferrari V8
Team Principal: Peter Sauber
Technical Director: James Key
Race Engineer Car 16: Francesco Nenci
Race Engineer Car 17:Marco Schupbach

Stats as of end 2010

First Entered 1993
Races Entered 296
Race Wins 1
Pole Positions 1
Fastest Laps 2
Driver World Championships 0
Constructor World Championships 0

The Beginning

Following success in sports car racing Peter Sauber, in collaboration with Mercedes Benz, moved into Formula 1 in 1993. With Ilmor engines Sauber entered the C12 car (the C prefix for Sauber cars coming from Peter Sauber’s wife Christine) driven by Mercedes sports car drivers JJ Lehto and Karl Wendlinger. Lehto finished a creditable 5th in their first race and the cars proved fast but unreliable. When the cars finished they often picked up points with Lehto managing 4th in San Marino and Wendlinger the same placing in Italy.

In 1994 the team became officially Sauber Mercedes as the Ilmor engines were rebadged as Mercedes units. Heinz Harald Frentzen replaced Lehto and the team showed similar pace to the previous season with a number of minor points placings. Wendlinger was replaced, following an accident at Monaco, firstly by Andrea de Cesaris and later in the season by Lehto. Wendlinger’s accident, following closely after the deaths of Senna and Ratzenberger at San Marino, resulted in changes to the design of the cockpit on F1 cars to provide greater head protection in the event of an accident.

Red Bull & Ford

1995 saw Mercedes leave Sauber to supply engines to McLaren. Now armed with Red Bull sponsorship, Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz having bought a stake in the Sauber team, Sauber sourced Ford factory engines. Wendlinger hadn’t recovered well and was replaced early in the season by Jean Christophe Bouillon. Sauber amassed 18 points for the season with Frentzen taking a podium for 3rd in Belgium.

Jonny Herbert partnered Frentzen for 1996 and managed a highest of 3rd at Monaco, with Frentzen 4th, but the team ended the season on their lowest points tally since entering Formula 1 with 11 points

Ferrari Customer

From 1997 to 2005 Sauber used customer Ferrari engines and run under the name of title sponsor Petronas. The tie in with Ferrari extended beyond the supply of engines as Ferrari also provided the Swiss team with technical support.

Jonny Herbert continued with Sauber for 1997 and ’98 and was partnered in ’98 by veteran Jean Alesi. Herbert managed a podiums at Hungary in ’97 and Alesi in Belgium in ’98 but generally Sauber’s performance was fairly ordinary. In 2001 Sauber hired young Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen amidst protest form other teams due to his lack of experience. Raikkonen scored a point on his debut with teammate Nick Heidfeld 4th in the same race. Raikkonen’s appointment also triggered the sale of Red Bull’s stake in Sauber to Credit Suisse as the Austrian drinks company wanted the seat given to Enrique Bernoldi.

Peter Sauber continued to give drives to promising youngsters with Felipe Massa racing for him in 2004 & 2005 and Robert Kubica replacing Jacques Villeneuve in 2006.

BMW Sauber

For 2006 BMW took a controlling interest in the Sauber team and BMW units replaced Ferrari engines. BMW “works” driver Nick Heidfeld returned to Sauber from Williams and the team finished 2nd in the Constructors Championship behind Ferrari (following the exclusion of the McLaren team). Heidfeld scored points in 14 of the 17 races that season. 2007 also saw the first F1 drive for Sebastien Vettel who substituted for Robert Kubica at the race in Indianapolis following the Pole’s crash in Canada.

2008 saw Sauber take their first Grand Prix win with Kubica victorious in Canada and Heidfeld coming home 2nd. The team scored numerous podiums and claimed 3rd spot in the Constructors Championship.

2009 was a disappointing season following the highs of 2008 as Sauber struggled with changes to design regulations. Heidfeld and Kubica both managed a 2nd place each but the team dropped to 6th in the Constructors Championship. By the end of the season BMW decided to pull out of the sport.

Back to Ferrari

Following BMW’s withdrawal Peter Sauber took back control of his team. Re-equipped with Ferrari engines Sauber signed promising young Japanese driver Kamui Kobayshi alongside returning veteran Pedro de la Rosa. Early season reliability problems blighted the team but by the end of the season, and the replacement of de la Rosa with Nick Heidfeld, Sauber began to score points on a regular basis. Kobayshi managed a highest finish of 6th in Britain and the team ended 8th in the Constructors Championship.

2011

Kobayashi stays with Sauber for 2011 alongside Sergio Perez who brings with him some much-needed sponsorship from Mexican Telecoms company Telmex. The C30 chassis continues with a Ferrari engine.

 

[Mephistopheles]

A man reaches his physical peak at about 30 years old F1 is very demanding on the body a 17 year old is just not ready for it...

Although I reached my physical peak at about 39 I was a god of a man, an absolute Adonis everything fully functional and raring to go a full head of hair, twinkling blue eyes and the physique and stamina of Hercules himself, someone actually tried to kill me once just because I looked so great
...

 

[RasputinLives]

Well as the majority of the grid are under 30 and at least 5 or more are under 22 I'll expect to see lots of cars pulling out of races this year with drivers collapsing of exhaustion then.

 

[Mephistopheles]

 

[FB]

Maybe they could go back to the "good old days" of car sharing, take a couple of 17 year old's and let them do half a race each?

 

[RasputinLives]

Sirotkin turns 19 in a month or so by the way.

 

[soccerman17]

Its definitely a case by case basis. There's no way you can say all 19 year-olds won't be ready for Formula One, because some are more developed at that point than others and some just have more stamina, either genetically or because they have been working harder at it for the previous 18 years of their lives (Sirotkin is Russian. Russians are crazy. Plausible that he started at age 1.)

 

[Jen]

Whatever their physique and stamina, I suspect their brain and emotions will be at least 10 years behind!

 

[Blog Zbod]

In addition to suffering under the burden of the too-heavy Ferrari engine (by 13kg), Sauber's chassis apparently also is carrying a bit too much body fat. They have a light-weight replacement in the works which, depending on the reporting source, should be ready by China or by Spain. The car is believed to be 20kg over spec weight, even with Gutierrez driving, and he is the 2° lightest driver on the grid. So pity poor Sutil. One wonders where they can find 20kg to trim in a presumably already svelte CF structure, and whether the change might compromise handling or, G-d forbid, safety.

 

[RasputinLives]

I don't pity poor Sutil. I pity the poor driver whose seat he's nicked.

Brundle quoted an anon driver over the weekend stating he believed the weight the drivers have had to get down to this season has made them all physically unwell. Some of them are certainly looking pale and gaunt.

This might be a topic for another thread though.

 

[teabagyokel]

Sauber have only got 1 car to the end since Australia. 5 DNFs out of 6 starts ain't good.

Slow and unreliable is a sad combination.

 

[Galahad]

If you tie yourself so closely to an engine supplier you have to expect some rough with the smooth. See also: Red Bull.

 

[soccerman17]

Reports that Fabio Leimer couldn't buy himself a Sauber seat for $14 million. Leimer is no pay driver, but rather the reigning GP2 champion. And to think, Sauber may have the worst driver lineup on the grid, you could argue even worse than Marussia and Caterham.

Is Monisha Kaltenborn crazy?

Is GP2 dead?

 

[RasputinLives]

GP2 has a far far better line up this year than last.

Leimer had been arpund for 4 to 5 years and had took his time on showing potential. Guttierrez junior record matches his easily and he had a year of F1 under him so they prob thought he was better option especially as he's been with the team as a development driver for 2 years previous to be a race driver.

Sutil I imagine brought more than 14 million. Would rather have seen Leimer than him but their are drivers I'd much rather see than Leimer too.

 

[soccerman17]

Why does it matter how long it took to show their potential? I would rather have a good driver for five years than a worse driver for ten.

Anyways Ericsson is the only GP2 driver from last year to make it up to F1, while seemingly plenty of non-GP2 have reached F1 or made steps towards it, while the GP2 drivers seem to go nowhere. That was the reasoning for my last point about GP2 being dead.

Better question then. Why is Sutil in F1 right now?

 

[RasputinLives]

Money money Money! And he is handy with a champagne flute!

Well Leimer is a one off champion with a pile of cash like Maldonado. I can see the argument for taking him but I can see why they didn't as well.

I get what your saying on GP2 by the way. I think there is a thread on the topic somewhere. Last years field was not of great quality whilst the world series was. Tjis year its kind of the other way round. It all depends where the big teams place their youth drivers.

 

[soccerman17]

Seriously though, why do teams care so much about age? It just doesn't make sense to me.

 

[RasputinLives]

I don't think it was age. Leimer had one good year out of about 10 in other catogries and so is seen still as not a sure thing. To be honest I'm with you and think if you win a feeder series then you should get a crack in F1.

In this case though they obviously need the sponsorship Sutil brings and plumped for Guttierrez as he has been consistantly top end in all series he's been in, already got a year in F1 and has been with the team for years so they know him inside out. Leimer is seen as a risk. Add to the fact that they also have a big name Mexican sponsor and I can see why they made their decision.

Its tough on Leimer I admitt and I included him in the my article on drivers who should be in F1 this season.

I'm afraid without the spending cap and with hardly any seats on the grid its going to happen more and more though unless you really make a case for yourself. Worked for KMag and Kvyat. Might work for Vandorne. The likes of Frinjs and Bird it hasn't though.

 

[FB]

Aren't Sauber more likely to get a driver coming through the Ferrari young driver program? Magnusson was brought through by McLaren and Kyvat by the Red Bull system which is good new for those who struggle when Daddy can't pay.

 

[RasputinLives]

Well thats why I thought Bianchi would end up there but it didn't happen.

If 'Lello does well in GP2 then maybe they'll have him next year. Right now it seems likely they'll have two different drivers next year.

 

[teabagyokel]

I tell you what, they may have shown the reason to get at least one talented driver in the car this weekend. Their choice of two crashing crusaders has lead them to lose the 2 points.