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.
 
lovely lovely... I'm in love
 

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Izumi, there has never been a golden age, there have been better years, but never an age, F1 also has always been a mix of manufacturers and independents even in the early days when really Ferrari was an independent as against Maserati, Alfa, Talbot, Simca and other European manufacturers, with the odd sprinkling of mainly UK entrants ERA, Alta and Vanwall, though a large engineering company not a manufacturer of cars using a modified Rolls Royce inline 6 block.
Jump to 1962 and we only have Lotus Ferrari and Porsche as manufacturers, it was won by BRM an engineering company similar to Williams but with their own engine.
The difference now is the huge cost of developing a power unit that is reliable, only three per season supposedly to cut costs and limited to 15000 rpm however it is cheaper to manufacture a simpler engine and recoup parts from a damaged engine to run later in the season, perhaps not back to the old turbo era when if an engine let go nothing was salvageable.
Though we have 4 engine suppliers only two are near each other in maximum power, there have been more engines on the grid and less in the past, aero is the name of the game as RB has shown but BHP still seems to win, the race is in the design office and engineering, the driver not so much so, there are a few drivers down the grid that could have give Lewis Hamilton a run for his money, not saying they could have beaten him not saying they couldn't.
Viewing numbers were at risk the moment the first Astra satellite was launched and Rupert Murdoch realised if he bought the rights to most sports he couldn't never go broke, though sports could rise and fall at Murdoch's whim Rugby League being a good example
 
DATE: 2019-02-18 CET: 16:28

Dartman
There are numerous grievances just about any number of reasons, and we can talk about any of those for ages. I would rather however narrow the discussion on what to do next.

There seems to be tendency in recent years to finger-point Ferrari and Mercedes as sources of all evil in today F1. I tend to disagree. FiA and Commercial rights holder both as regulatory and financial bodies knew what was proposed regarding 2014, and they approve of it. Today if someone has questions about it, they should perhaps address their concerns to those who handed over e few years of easy life to Mercedes, and ask WHY did you do this? No one was fired, as far as I know. Mercedes is just implementing plan, nothing more, nothing less.

I fully agree there never was "golden era" when everyone was happy, and I am rather confused what people talking about when they discussing need for change, but never define change to what and why? Is there realistically a business model which would work for everyone? Somehow I doubt it. I still would like to sit down with Brawn, let him relax, and talk freely about his plans and what will happen to series in 2021. Permit me to speculate, but I do not see in my crystal ball 6 cylinder turbo. (4 cylinder turbo - maybe. That would get VW, Porsche and maybe Cosworth interested.)
I.
 
The C38 is a little different from the shakedown spy pics. I wonder if Alfa is holding some cards up their sleeve not to give away any secrets, and gradually introduced those as the testing continues
 
The C38 is a little different from the shakedown spy pics. I wonder if Alfa is holding some cards up their sleeve not to give away any secrets, and gradually introduced those as the testing continues
A new development from Alfa Romeo during the second half of testing, adding a small fin to the engine cover just ahead of the rear wing, with a drooping T-wing attached to the trailing edge. This is going to clean up airflow ahead of the rear wing, ensuring it’s not too affected by any pockets of turbulence being shed from the engine cover. Similar to what McLaren runs, it’s interesting that the fold in the engine cover comes as its own separate piece of bodywork, hinting at further developments in this area...
 

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Proper Singha in Thailand used to be epic, less than £1 a litre and 6%ish (literally ish, as they weren't too fussed on the actual strength) in 30+ degree heat, it was possibly to be shitfaced for about £7, leaving the other £3 for a meal, I miss my post-uni travels!
 
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