This weeks instalment includes one of my favourite teams, and probably everybody's favourite underdog! Sauber have always had their name in every title they've ever ran under, the only difference came from engine manufacturers.
First Entered: 1993
Pole Positions: 0
Race Wins: 0
Points: 195
Constructors Championships: 0
Drivers Championships: 0
After his successes in Hillclimbing and other Motorsport activities, Swiss Peter Sauber introduced his own F1 team to the sport in 1993. The team never gathered much success and was better known as a team who employed younger talent in order to grow and nurture them. Jean Alesi and Giancarlo Fisichella were among the older drivers but Sauber did hire future drivers like Nick Heidfeld and Ferrari's Felipe Massa.
Their greatest contribution was far and wide, giving Kimi Raikkonen his F1 debut. He was so impressive that he pipped the more experience Heidfeld to the vacant seat at McLaren, a move that angered Heidfeld. Sorry Nick, but you would never have reached the heights that the Iceman soared.
Sauber also had a brief involvement with Red Bull as a sponsor for a number of years.
First Entered: 2006
Pole Positions: 1
Race Wins: 1
Points: 308
Constructors Championships: 0
Drivers Championships: 0
The team entered into an engine deal with BMW and raced as BMW Sauber in 2006, a move that proved to be quite successful in contrast to their previous set up. Heidfeld continued driving with them right the way through with 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve driving for 3/4 of the 2006 season before being replaced by the extremely talented Robert Kubica (get better soon Rab). Sebastian Vettel had a race start after Kubica's horrible accident in Canada in 2007.
For a team with little pace before, BMW Sauber had a 2nd and 3rd place finish in two championship years with Kubica winning the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix, a year after the accident (it also happened to be a 1-2 for the team).
In 2009, BMW withdrew their involvement in the sport, ending any possible progression. Peter Sauber repurchased the team, filling in the spot left vacated by Toyota following their withdrawal. The team could have reached amazing heights, but they didn't exactly have a massive decline in form.
Re-Entered: 2010
Pole Positions: 0
Race Wins: 0
Points: 214
Constructors Championships: 0
Drivers Championships: 0
Sauber came back and started using Ferrari engines a move which did not bring back their great BMW pace, but they hired veteran Pedro de la Rosa and rookie Kamui Kobayashi in order to make a new beginning. The team conceded 14 DNF's and dropped de la Rosa for former driver Nick Heidfeld who had another DNF on his first race back. Under the new point system the did manage to make a pretty decent haul in points but real strides in performace were not seen until last year when Sergio Perez scored the first podium for Sauber since 2003, a feat he achieved three times. The team totalled four podiums last season with Krazy Kob bagging a third place in Japan.
For 2013, Sauber took Nico Hulkenberg from Force India and GP2 runner Esteban Gutierrez on board to try and build on the current successes. Sauber have also made F1 history by being the first team to have a female boss in the form of Monisha Kaltenborn.
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| Sauber C32 |
Sauber tend to follow up a successful season with a few poor ones. For the sake of Hulkenberg (who is an extremely talented driver) this is proven wrong. Hopefully the team who sacrificed Kobayashi for better funding know the risk they took, and that expectations are extremely high.
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