Sauber

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Sauber is a Swiss constructor of racing cars for sportscar racing and Formula One. The company, previously independent, is now owned by BMW and is known as BMW Sauber.

Sports Cars

Since the 1970s, Peter Sauber built sports cars. After using turbocharged Mercedes V8 engines in the 1980s, his team became the official factory team of Mercedes-Benz, reviving the Silver Arrow legend. They won the 24 hours of Le Mans and the world sports car championship, competing against Jaguar and Porsche. Among others, drivers like Michael Schumacher, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Karl Wendlinger, Jochen Mass, Jean-Louis Schlesser and Mauro Baldi raced for Sauber.

Sauber participated in a number of other racing series before its involvement in Formula One, such as the Swiss and International Sports cars championships and the 24 hours of Le Mans. The first Sauber car C1 was built in 1970. Sauber, in partnership with Mercedes, won the Le Mans 24 hour race in 1989 and the world sports car championship in 1989 and 1990 with the Sauber C9.

Formula One

Sauber entered Formula One for the first time in 1993. It had a successful start, with driver JJ Lehto finishing in fifth position in Sauber's debut race. However, it was not a sign of times to come. Sauber was never able to consistently challenge the bigger teams. Its most successful season was 2001 when it finished fourth in the Constructors' Championship. The rest of the time, however, Sauber cars were more likely to be closer to the back of the field than the front.

From the mid-1990s Sauber had close ties with Ferrari. Sauber used Ferrari designed engines (from 1997 to 2005) and gearboxes built by Sauber Petronas Engineering, a company founded for the sole purpose of building these engines, that were nearly identical to the ones used by Ferrari. Sauber licenced nearly every legally licensable part from Ferrari and even had several Ferrari engineers on staff. Many pointed out suspicious similarities between Ferrari and Sauber chassis, but no formal accusations were ever made (FIA rules require each team to design their own chassis).

In 2001 Sauber brought a virtually unknown and very inexperienced Kimi Räikkönen into Formula One, despite the protests of a few drivers and influential members of the FIA, including Max Mosley, that he would pose a danger to other drivers. His performances that year (and in the years to come), however, more than vindicated their decision. In 2004 Sauber spent a large sum of money on a new wind tunnel at Hinwil, and a high performance supercomputer (called Albert) to help refine the aerodynamics of their cars. The state-of-the-art infrastructure Sauber has built up is one aspect that attracted BMW Motorsport to Sauber.

In its later years, Sauber's links with Ferrari became weaker. They sided with the non-Ferrari teams over planned rule changes at the end of the 2004 season and also joined up with GPWC (which BMW are now involved with). Then they decided to switch to Michelin tyres, while Ferrari continued to use Bridgestones. BMW ownership commenced from January 1st 2006. Sauber's final grand prix came in China 2005, Felipe Massa scoring a welcome sixth place to round off the team's history. Sauber departed F1 with six third places and two front row starts their best results. Amongst notable Sauber drivers were Jean Alesi, Johnny Herbert and 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve, who raced for the team in its final season. Two former Sauber drivers drove for the new BMW Sauber team in 2006, Nick Heidfeld who was a Sauber driver from 2001-2003 and Canadian Jacques Villeneuve who drove for the team in 2005.

Complete Formula One Results

(key) (results in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Chassis/Engine/ Tyres	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Points	WCC
1993	C12 Ilmor V10 G		RSA	BRA	EUR	SMR	ESP	MON	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	JPN	AUS				12	7th
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory Wendlinger	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	13	6	Ret	Ret	9	6	Ret	4	5	Ret	15
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory JJ Lehto	5	Ret	Ret	4	Ret	Ret	7	Ret	8	Ret	Ret	9	Ret	7	8	Ret
1994	C13 Mercedes V10 G		BRA	PFC	SMR	MON	ESP	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	EUR	JPN	AUS				12	8th
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory Wendlinger	6	Ret	4	DNQ	Inj	Inj	Inj	Inj	Inj	Inj	Inj	Inj	Inj	Inj	Inj	Inj
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory de Cesaris						Ret	6	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory JJ Lehto															Ret	10
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory Frentzen	Ret	5	7	WD	Ret	Ret	4	7	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	6	6	7
1995	C14 Ford V8 G		BRA	ARG	SMR	ESP	MON	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	EUR	PFC	JPN	AUS			18	7th
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory Wendlinger	Ret	Ret	Ret	13												10	Ret
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory Boullion					8	Ret	Ret	9	5	10	11	6	12	Ret	Ret
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory Frentzen	Ret	5	6	8	6	Ret	10	6	Ret	5	4	3	6	Ret	7	8	Ret
1996	C15 Ford V10 G		AUS	BRA	ARG	EUR	SMR	MON	ESP	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	JPN				11	7th
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory Herbert	DNS	Ret	9	7	Ret	3	Ret	7	DSQ	9	Ret	Ret	Ret	9	8	10
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory Frentzen	8	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	4	4	Ret	Ret	8	8	Ret	Ret	Ret	7	6
1997	C16 Petronas V10* G		AUS	BRA	ARG	SMR	MON	ESP	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	AUT	LUX	JPN	EUR			16	7th
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory Herbert	Ret	7	4	Ret	Ret	5	5	8	Ret	Ret	3	4	Ret	8	7	6	8
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory Larini	6	11	Ret	7	Ret
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory Morbidelli						14	10	Inj	Inj	Inj	Ret	9	12	9	9	DNS	Inj
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory Fontana								Ret	9	9							14
1998	C17 Petronas V10* G		AUS	BRA	ARG	SMR	ESP	MON	CAN	FRA	GBR	AUT	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	LUX	JPN				10	6th
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory Alesi	Ret	9	5	6	10	12	Ret	7	Ret	Ret	10	7	3	5	10	7
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory Herbert	6	11	Ret	Ret	7	7	Ret	8	Ret	8	Ret	10	Ret	Ret	Ret	10
1999	C18 Petronas V10* B		AUS	BRA	SMR	MON	ESP	CAN	FRA	GBR	AUT	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	EUR	MYS	JPN				5	8th
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory Alesi	Ret	Ret	6	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	14	Ret	8	16	9	9	Ret	7	6
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory Diniz	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	6	Ret	6	6	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	11
2000	C19 Petronas V10* B		AUS	BRA	SMR	GBR	ESP	EUR	MON	CAN	FRA	AUT	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	USA	JPN	MYS			6	8th
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory Diniz	Ret	WD	8	11	Ret	7	Ret	10	11	9	Ret	Ret	11	8	8	11	Ret
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory Salo	DSQ	WD	6	8	7	Ret	5	Ret	10	6	5	10	9	7	Ret	10	8
2001	C20 Petronas V10* B		AUS	MYS	BRA	SMR	ESP	AUT	MON	CAN	EUR	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	USA	JPN			21	4th
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory Heidfeld	4	Ret	3	7	6	9	Ret	Ret	Ret	6	6	Ret	6	Ret	11	6	9
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory Räikkönen	6	Ret	Ret	Ret	8	4	10	4	10	7	5	Ret	7	DNS	7	Ret	Ret
2002	C21 Petronas V10* B		AUS	MYS	BRA	SMR	ESP	AUT	MON	CAN	EUR	GBR	FRA	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	USA	JPN			11	5th
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory Heidfeld	Ret	5	Ret	10	4	Ret	8	12	7	6	7	6	9	10	10	9	7
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory Massa	Ret	6	Ret	8	5	Ret	Ret	9	6	9	Ret	7	7	Ret	Ret		Ret
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory Frentzen																13
2003	C22 Petronas V10* B		AUS	MYS	BRA	SMR	ESP	AUT	MON	CAN	EUR	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	ITA	USA	JPN				19	6th
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory Heidfeld	Ret	8	Ret	10	10	Ret	11	Ret	8	13	17	10	9	9	5	9
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory Frentzen	6	9	5	11	Ret	DNS	Ret	Ret	9	12	12	Ret	Ret	13	3	Ret
2004	C23 Petronas V10* B		AUS	MYS	BHR	SMR	ESP	MON	EUR	CAN	USA	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	CHN	JPN	BRA		34	6th
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory Fisichella	10	11	11	9	7	Ret	6	4	9	12	6	9	8	5	8	7	8	9
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory Massa	Ret	8	12	10	9	5	9	Ret	Ret	13	9	13	Ret	4	12	8	9	8
2005	C24 Petronas V10* M		AUS	MYS	BHR	SMR	ESP	MON	EUR	CAN	USA	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	TUR	ITA	BEL	BRA	JPN	CHN	20	8th
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory Villeneuve	13	Ret	11	4	Ret	11	13	9	DNS	8	14	15	Ret	11	11	6	12	12	10
		Error creating thumbnail: sh: /usr/sfw/bin/convert: No such file or directory Massa	10	10	7	10	11	9	14	4	DNS	Ret	10	8	14	Ret	9	10	11	10	6

* denotes Ferrari engine badged as Petronas

BMW-Sauber

The team was renamed BMW Sauber for 2006 after being bought by BMW.

External links

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Sauber

Unofficial Sauber fansite

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Sportscars: C1 | C2 | C3 | C4 | C5 | SHS C6 | C7 | C8 | C9 | C11 | C291 | C292