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.

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

I don't think Van Der Garde is in the wrong here. The team should have never got into this situation. They took 8 million Euros off his sponsors and gave him a cast-iron contract to drive in 2015. It's not his fault they chose to renege on that. At the very least they should give the money back.

 

[Jen]

At the very least he should have ensured he had a valid super licence!

 

[-WBF1-]

I maybe wrong, but I believe the application for a super licence has to be endorsed/applied for by the team the applicant is employed by.

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

Correct WBF1.

 

[FB]

Perhaps Giedo has been listening to me.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/v...eement-action-for-contempt-of-court-withdrawn

 

[cider_and_toast]

I reckon he's had a visit from the Men in Grey. Like the Men in Black only shorter and older.

 

[Brogan]

Sauber responds to van der Garde's statement:

"Many of you read today’s statement on Giedo van der Garde’s Facebook page. So have we and we were, indeed, rather surprised. We don’t know about Giedo’s intentions. He may try to present himself as a winner, while we had actually hoped to come to rest after our agreement. Giedo decided to take a different approach – the reasoning behind we cannot understand.

“We’d have very good answers to the many statements and accusations in Giedo’s post. But to expand on this wouldn’t help our race team nor our fans and partners. It would only encourage a mud fight via the media and we will not lend ourselves to that. The next race in Malaysia is where our focus is and that’s where we will build up on last weekend’s success together with our drivers Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr. All our efforts are drawn to this objective.

“With this in mind we’d like to encourage you to form your own opinion about what happened, however critical it may be. From our side we herewith close the matter and look already forward to celebrating future achievements at the race track together with you.

“Yours sincerely, Sauber F1 Team"

 

[Titch]

Well I read his Facebook statement, and considering how badly the team has treated him, I thought it was very measured. The above statement from the team, whilst brief, is complete rubbish. Also very naive. And badly written.
What did they expect him to do, fade away as if he'd never been there. As he see's it he's not ever going to get a chance in F1 courtesy of Team Sauber , is he supposed to say thank you? If they have a valid reason for their actions, why don't they state them?
Even if it's that they think he's crap.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Roughly translated the Sauber statement reads:

Ah bugger, he didn't slink off quietly and count his new stash of cash. He's come out with a statement to try and clear some of the stigma that has grown up around his actions. Hmmm didn't expect him to do that. Maybe he has recovered some of his damaged reputation by displaying a degree of integrity. Well, looks like we were in the wrong which ever way you slice the pie. We can't come up with a good excuse so we'll pretend we've got one but we don't want to make this drag on. Throw in a few lines about how we love our fans and we're all in this together and it's jobs a good 'un. They'd have forgotten all of this come Malaysia anyway.

Up yours, The Sauber Team.

 

[Greenlantern101]

Complex steering wheel

http://www.sauberf1team.com/fileadm.../documents/pdf/2015_StW_Infographic_PO_lr.pdf

 

[Andrea_Moda_Rules]

Which button ejects the seat??

 

[teabagyokel]

Andrea_Moda_Rules - The one in Giedo van der Garde's house marked "Litigate".

 

[FB]

Are Sauber going backwards this season?

 

[Bill Boddy]

No, but they are going forwards at a slower rate than the rest of the pack, even slower than Force India.

 

[RasputinLives]

I think on a good day Sauber jump Red Bull, Torro Rosso and Enstone and on a bad day come just behind them. Spain was a bad day. I think Monaco will be a good one (for Nasr anyways).

Despite all the bad PR at the begining of the season with the Van Der Garde stuff you have to say Sauber have got to be chuffed with how the season is going so far compared to last year.

 

[FB]

The BBC are running a story that Nasr and Ericsson will be retained at Sauber for next season although there is nothing on the F1 homepage yet. Nasr has looked to be a half decent driver but Ericsson hasn't really demonstrated much greater speed than he showed in the Caterham. Presumably he comes with a large sponsorship package.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Certainly more than Van Der Garde.

 

[RasputinLives]

If they do retain Ericsson I think its probably a combination of his sponsorship and the fact the Raffaele Marciello is having such a poor time of it in GP2 and is likely to be dropped by the Ferrari youth academy. If all had been going well for 'Lello I suspect Ferrari would have made it worth their while to put him in a race seat.

Still its Sauber so they could retain these two drivers and sign two more.

 

[Greenlantern101]

http://www.sauberf1team.com/fileadm...ocuments/pdf/infografik-joinourpassion-en.pdf

 

[Johnny Carwash]

Fair play to Sauber for getting to there 400th GP, hopefully they will be on the grid for many more years to come.