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.

 

[Il_leone]

I was going to say what's wrong with Sauber

Is it the car?

Is it the money?

Is it the engine?

Is it the drivers?

Is it the management?

They've gone so far back down the end from the highs of Hulkenberg who put the car into the top 10


They are not even racing Torro Rosso's anymore?

 

[soccerman17]

Its the engine, its the car its the drivers, its just about everything wrong really. Nightmare season.

 

[F1Yorkshire]

If the engine, car and drivers are all wrong isn't that failing down to the management?

 

[soccerman17]

Pretty much F1Yorkshire I think the only reason the drivers are a problem though are because money was a problem previously. And the engine issues can be put on Ferrari, unless you blame management for that too. They can only blame themselves for the car problems though.

 

[Splash]

I blame the scapegoats.

 

[KekeTheKing]

If the engine, car and drivers are all wrong isn't that failing down to the management?

I've always liked Monisha Kaltenborn as a person, but what is it that makes her qualified to run a Formula One team? She took over a team in mid-2012 that was very much on form, collecting 3 podiums in her first 9 races as boss, but they haven't been back in nearly 2 years now. As for driver selection, I know her hands were tied with Gutierrez, but bringing back Sutil still seems bizarre.
And I know this is hardly quantifiable, but she has never struck me as the kind of person that can truly inspire confidence as a leader within the team. I thought Martin Whitmarsh suffered from a similar condition.

 

[FB]

According to Wiki she owns 33% of the team - this might not qualify her to be able to run the team but it's hard to suggest to her that she shouldn't, unless you want to be shown the door

 

[KekeTheKing]

This is definitely a hindsight kind of question FB. What is it about Mrs. Kaltenborn that would prompt Peter Sauber to transfer a 1/3 of his team to her and make her Team Principal? Obviously the decision could hardly be questioned after they finished 6th in the 2012 Constructors Standings, but in retrospect you'd have to say that all the pieces were in place before she assumed the head role and she probably had very little impact on the second half surge of 2012. And aside from a solid yet unspectacular 4 race run by Hulkenberg last year, Sauber have been a shambles, and there is little to no leadership in that camp to speak of.

 

[FB]

I agree, she doesn't come across as the dynamic Ross Brawn type engineering lead, she's not an I've been in F1 since birth type like Frank Williams and she's not a manipulator and manoeuvre like Jean Todt or an OCD tyrant like Ron Dennis. From her Wiki entry she's a lawyer who came to F1 via her legal background. Bit different to the spiv motor traders who used to run F1 teams. Perhaps more like that bloke who used to run the Honda team, Nick errrm, Fry. Not a model anyone would want to follow really.

Completely off topic, if anyone gets the chance, watch the interview with Gordon Murray on Sky for an insight into the "machine" that is Ron Dennis' McLaren. From Murray's description it was a complete ****ing mess when he arrived and he had to put most of the systems in place that Ron now values so much. Not bad for a hippy!

 

[teabagyokel]

Completely off topic, if anyone gets the chance, watch the interview with Gordon Murray on Sky for an insight into the "machine" that is Ron Dennis' McLaren. From Murray's description it was a complete ****ing mess when he arrived and he had to put most of the systems in place that Ron now values so much. Not bad for a hippy!

Albeit a mess that had already won the Championship twice!

 

[Il_leone]

Are the Russians still backing Sauber and Sirotkin still considered for promotion?

- signing Sutil was only for monetary purposes... no real gain I see in that move

- Di Resta would have been better because he would have been motivated to show he has potential to be a team leader

- Are all the money still there then?

 

[RasputinLives]

That Di Resta drum your beating is getting old.

My question on Sauber is why did they not try and obtain the services of Perez? Their sponsorship deal with Telmex says they must have a Mexican driver, he has GP experience and he carries personnel sponsors which basically covers everything both their current drivers bring in one swoop.

They didn't even make a move for him which is odd. Although KekeTheKing posted an article about Perez not being well liked which might be a reason.

I can see why they stuck with Guttierrez but I think we see thats a mistake now as Esteban may have gone past the point of no return on the development front. Still confused on Sutil though but then I was when he came in at Force India the year before.

I think they'll have a whole new line up next season. With the Ferrari connections maybe they'll run Bianchi or Marchiello?

 

[teabagyokel]

RasputinLives - I wouldn't rule out Sirotkin just yet. In actual fact, Sutil came from such a left-field position I wouldn't rule out anyone at this point.

My money is on Sirotkin with Vitantonio Liuzzi as spare and the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz as the reserve.

 

[RasputinLives]

Sirotkin is not making a great job of it in WSR this year being out paced by his rookie team mate Rowland.

I might put a sly bet on Simona De Silvestro landing the seat though as they are investing a lot of time in her running, she comes with sponsors and she'd arrive in a big load of publicity.

 

[teabagyokel]

RasputinLives - De Silvestro is a possibility.

On driver quality, you consistently check if a driver is shit more thoroughly than the teams appear to! Being rubbish has not been an impediment to a Sauber drive for 2014, might not be for 2015.

 

[Il_leone]

RasputinLives Sutil has become a journeyman and in some cases a serious liability if you tell him that was he was about to be lapped by Lewis Hamilton

With Di Resta perhaps you can see with him if he has team leadership credentials or not ( I would not be surprised if he wrangles a drive at lotus next season in place of Pastor)

Perez - it was confirmed by Jo Ramirez that a test with Sauber and Mclaren - none of the Sauber guys could find positive things to say so perhaps Sergio believes in his own hype too much from being backed through Carlos Slim and having Ferrari support


Certainly I think Bianchi moving up to Sauber whilst a small gain ( they are only just in front of fellow Ferrari customer Marussia in terms of race pace but not points scored). this would seem logical, not sure about the 2nd driver because I thought the Russians were suppose to throw money behind the team ...in that case someone like Petrov would have been a good fit but it appears Telmex appear to bring a lot of money if they insist a Mexican driver is required

----------------------------------

Don't be surprised if a manufacturer offers to buy Sauber again

 

[RasputinLives]

Can I just state for the record - and I'm sure teabagyokel will keep it on me because he's good at that sort of thing - that if Paul Di Resta is in F1 next year (or any year after) I will eat one of Pirreli's wet weather tyres washed down with a dodgy Red Bull fuel sample.

 

[teabagyokel]

*Places Pirelli tyres and vial of dodgy Red Bull fuel onto shelf in "Big Mouth" shed, labels RasputinLives/di Resta*

 

[Splash]

I imagine that the fuel will actually taste nicer than a can of Red Bull itself ("Gives You Wind").

 

[FB]

I'm tempted to pay for Di Resta to take over from Max Chilton at Marussia just to watch RasputinLives eat a Pirelli tyre and drink Red Bull fuel