Team History & Record

After very successfully directing the Mercedes sports car program through the late 1980's, Swiss Peter Sauber began preparations to bring his team and Mercedes into F1 in 1992. Although Mercedes withdrew full-factory support at the end of 1991, they continued to help fund the project indirectly with the supply of Ilmor/Mercedes engines used during the first two seasons. Sauber drafted into his team several of the drivers from his sports car program, including two of the three "Mercedes Junior Team"; Karl Wendlinger and Heinz-Harald Frentzen (the third being Michael Schumacher who was already winning races for Benetton). The team scored points on several occasions, including fifth place in its debut, which prompted Mercedes to give more backing for 1994 running as "Sauber Mercedes". The team scored points in the first three races, but were thrown into turmoil when Karl Wendlinger was seriously injured during practice at Monaco. He was replaced by veteran Andrea de Ceasaris who scored a point on just one occasion before he himself was replaced by JJ Lehto for the final two GP.

At the end of the 1994 season Mercedes withdrew its backing and the team switched to the proven Ford V8 for 1995. With major sponsorship (and an ownership stake) from Red Bull and better reliability the team accrued its highest point total so far. Although Wendlinger tried return at the beginning of the season it was clear he was not able to match his team-mate, Frentzen and he was replaced by F3000 Champion, Jean-Christophe Bouillon after four races. The young Frenchman scored points on just twice and Wendlinger returned again for the final two GP but was still off the pace.

The Malaysian national oil company, Petronas, became a major sponsor of the team for 1996 and funded the purchase of Ferrari engines from 1997 on. These engines were, generally, one season behind the specification used by the works team and were badged as "Petronas V10" in deference to the company paying for them. However, despite employing a blend of upcoming stars (Kimi Raikkonen, Nick Heidfeld and Felipe Massa) and experienced drivers (Jean Alesi, Johnny Herbert and Jacques Villeneuve) the team was unable to break out of the mid-pack.

1997 C17

1996 C16

Although initially heavily aligned with Ferrari, Sauber moved to become a fully independent manufacturer and invested heavily in the infrastructure at their Hinwil base with a state of the art wind tunnel and a CFD super computer (named "Albert"). When Dietrich Mateschitz bought his own team and moved the Red Bull sponsorship at the end of 2004, Peter Sauber looked for new investors. The advanced facilities were one of the main reasons BMW bought the team at the end of the 2005 season to become the works BMW Sauber F1 Team.

When BMW announced its withdrawal from F1 at the end of 2009 the team was set to be purchased by Qadbak Investments, but the deal fell apart when Swiss media exposed Qadbak as a shell company with no real investors. BMW then agreed to sell the team back to Peter Sauber contingent on them being granted the 13th spot on the grid - which was only made available when Toyota left F1. The team switched back to long-time partner Ferrari for its engine supply and unveiled the almost sponsor-less C29 in time for the first test session of the season. Hampered by lack of development time and funding, the team (running as "BMW Sauber F1 Team" because a name change had not yet been requested) struggled early in the early races both with reliability and driver mistakes. It was not until the 7th race (Turkey) that they scored their first point with Kamui Kobayashi finishing 10th. The Japanese went on to score several points finishes in the second half of the season, along with Nick Heidfeld who replaced Pedro de la Rosa for the last five GP.

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