Peter Sauber built the C1 in his parents' garage to compete in the 1970 Swiss Sports Car Championship, using a 1.0L Cosworth engine in an open-cockpit tubular chassis. The C2 increased power to 1.6L and brought the team's first three race wins in domestic hillclimbing. The 2.0L C4 won one race in the 1975 European 2-Litre Sportscar Championship. The C5 was designed for Le Mans, debuting in 1977 and retiring in both 1977 and 1978, but it did deliver Sauber's first championship — the 1976 Interserie Championship with Swiss driver Herbert Müller.
After a one-year hiatus as a Lola F2 chassis builder, Sauber entered two cars in the 1980 BMW M1 Procar Championship, which at the time supported Formula One race weekends. The team achieved three consecutive pole positions with Marc Surer and Manfred Schurti. When the series folded after 1980, Sauber modified its cars for Group 5 regulations, and the resulting BMW M1 Sauber won the 1981 Nürburgring 1000km with Hans-Joachim Stuck and Nelson Piquet.
Sauber then stepped up to Group C prototype racing with the SHS C6, designed in partnership with Swiss firm Seger & Hoffmann around the BMW M88 power unit. The C6 placed fifth in the 1982 World Sportscar Championship for Manufacturers. The C7 debuted at the 1983 24 Hours of Le Mans and finished ninth overall, disrupting the near-total top-ten dominance of the Porsche 956.
After Mercedes-Benz expressed interest in returning to sports car racing, Sauber adapted its chassis to accept the Mercedes M117 turbocharged V8. The team raced the C8 as Kouros Racing Team under a title sponsorship deal with Yves Saint-Laurent. The C8 won the 1986 Nürburgring 1000km with Henri Pescarolo and Mike Thackwell in front of Mercedes executives. The C9 was built around the upgraded Mercedes M119HL engine; it raced for Sauber/Kouros in 1987 and set a Le Mans lap record with Johnny Dumfries.
In 1988 Mercedes gave the project full factory support and the team was renamed Team Sauber Mercedes. Under team directors Jochen Neerpash and Max Welti, with AEG-Olympia as primary sponsor, the C9s won five races in the 1988 World Sportscar Championship — but the team finished second in the championship behind Jaguar after withdrawing its two entries from Le Mans on safety grounds following high-speed tyre blowouts in practice.
Sauber dominated the 1989 World Sportscar Championship, winning all but one race to take the World Sports Prototype Championship for Teams with nearly double the points of second-placed Joest Racing. Jean-Louis Schlesser won the drivers' championship with five wins and led a Team Sauber Mercedes top-four lockout of the drivers' standings. At Le Mans the team locked out the front row and finished first, second, and fifth overall.
The C11 replaced the C9 for 1990. That year, long-time team figure Beat Zehnder worked with Mercedes to create a Junior Team, signing Michael Schumacher, Karl Wendlinger, and Heinz-Harald Frentzen. Sauber again won all but one race, claiming a second consecutive World Sports Prototype Championship for Teams. Schlesser was named co-champion on equal points with Mauro Baldi. The junior drivers contributed two wins: Wendlinger partnered Jochen Mass at Spa-Francorchamps, and Schumacher won the season finale at Mexico City. The team chose not to contest Le Mans in 1990 as it was designated a non-championship race.
For 1991 new Group C regulations mandated 3.5L Formula One-style engines. The C291 ran the Mercedes M291 flat-12 but suffered heavy reliability problems and raced alongside the prior C11 for much of the season. The team won only one race and slipped to third in the championship. Mercedes withdrew financial support during 1992 testing of the C292, which never raced.
Sauber intended to enter Formula One as a direct collaboration with Mercedes, but that joint project was shelved. Mercedes funded a customer engine contract instead: Ilmor V10 engines re-branded as Sauber power units. The C12 spent most of 1992 in testing. JJ Lehto partnered Wendlinger for the 1993 season.
On debut at the 1993 South African Grand Prix, Lehto qualified sixth and finished fifth ahead of Gerhard Berger's Ferrari. Impressive points finishes at San Marino, Montreal, and Monza prompted Mercedes to place "concept by Mercedes-Benz" stickers on the engine cover. Sauber finished seventh in the Constructors' Championship, ahead of Minardi and Jordan.
Mercedes became an official partner in 1994, and the team raced as Sauber-Mercedes. New entrant Pacific Grand Prix received a customer supply of the older-specification Sauber engines. Title sponsor Broker was found to be fraudulent and did not pay its obligations. Wendlinger was seriously injured after a practice crash at the Monaco Grand Prix, falling into a coma; Andrea de Cesaris stepped in as relief driver. Sauber re-engineered its cars with high cockpit side walls following the crash, a design that later became mandatory across Formula One in the wake of Wendlinger's accident and the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger that season. Mercedes left at the end of 1994 to join McLaren.
Sauber inherited Benetton's works engine deal with Ford for 1995 after Benetton switched to Renault. The team signed a ten-year sponsorship deal with Red Bull; Dietrich Mateschitz purchased a majority stake. Frentzen led the team to eighteen points — its largest F1 tally to that point — and took the team's first podium at the 1995 Italian Grand Prix with third. Petronas joined mid-season and remained a presenting sponsor until 2009.
In 1996 the team scored eleven points, with Johnny Herbert finishing third at the Monaco Grand Prix. For 1997 the team announced a customer deal for Ferrari engines developed through a new entity, Sauber Petronas Engineering, built specifically to manufacture licensed Ferrari-derived power units and gearboxes.
Sauber used Ferrari-designed customer engines and gearboxes for the period 1997 to 2005. Several Ferrari engineers were on staff. The team's first podium under this arrangement came at the 1997 Hungarian Grand Prix, followed by third at the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix. In 2001 Sauber brought Kimi Räikkönen into Formula One despite objections including from FIA president Max Mosley; Räikkönen's performances vindicated the decision. Red Bull sold its majority stake to Credit Suisse in protest, as it had wanted Enrique Bernoldi in the seat. In 2004 Sauber invested in a new wind tunnel and a high-performance supercomputer at Hinwil. Notable drivers in this era included Jean Alesi, Felipe Massa, Jacques Villeneuve, and Nick Heidfeld. Sauber's final race before the BMW takeover was the 2005 Chinese Grand Prix, where Massa scored sixth.
BMW purchased Credit Suisse's shares at the end of 2005, with Peter Sauber retaining a 20% stake. The team held a German racing licence from 2006 to 2009. Robert Kubica joined as the team's third driver for 2006, driving alongside Heidfeld and Villeneuve. Heidfeld scored the team's first BMW-era podium at the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix from tenth on the grid. Kubica added a second podium at the 2006 Italian Grand Prix after briefly leading during the first pit-stop cycle.
For 2007 the team announced Kubica alongside Heidfeld, with Sebastian Vettel as test and reserve driver. The F1.07 showed strong form; Heidfeld scored fourth in Melbourne, Malaysia, and Bahrain. At the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix, Heidfeld finished second while Kubica suffered a high-speed crash, escaping with a sprained ankle and concussion. Vettel replaced Kubica at the US Grand Prix and became the youngest driver to score a Formula One championship point. The team finished second in the 2007 World Constructors' Championship.
For 2008, BMW Sauber targeted a first victory. Kubica took the team's first pole position at the Bahrain Grand Prix, beating Felipe Massa by under three hundredths of a second. The team won the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix in a one-two finish — Kubica's first race win and Heidfeld second — after Lewis Hamilton collided with Kimi Räikkönen in the pit lane. This was the first Formula One victory for a BMW engine since the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix. Development was then shifted to the 2009 car, frustrating Kubica, who had been leading the Drivers' Championship. The team's form declined in the second half of 2008.
After a difficult 2009 season in which BMW withdrew, the company announced its exit from Formula One on 29 July 2009 following a board meeting. Chairman Norbert Reithofer described the decision as strategic. On 27 November 2009 Peter Sauber announced he would reacquire the team, which was confirmed by an FIA entry grant in December 2009.
Peter Sauber bought back the team for one euro. For 2010 the team used Ferrari engines and competed initially under the BMW Sauber name, despite carrying no BMW components. Kamui Kobayashi was signed as the first confirmed driver for 2010, with Pedro de la Rosa as second. The team scored no points in the opening six races, but Kobayashi finished tenth in Turkey and later scored the team's season-best result of sixth at the British Grand Prix. The second half of the season yielded 44 points and eighth in the Constructors' Championship.
In 2011 Kobayashi was joined by Sergio Pérez. The team finished seventh in the championship. In 2012, Pérez finished second at the Malaysian Grand Prix — the team's best independent-era result — and third at the Canadian Grand Prix and Italian Grand Prix. Kobayashi took his first podium at the Japanese Grand Prix. The team scored four podiums that season. Peter Sauber transferred a third of the team to CEO Monisha Kaltenborn at the Spanish Grand Prix. Sauber finished sixth in the 2012 Constructors' Championship.
The 2013 car, the C32, proved uncompetitive and the team slipped to seventh. For 2014 the team failed to score a single championship point — the first time in team history. In 2015, before the season opener in Australia, Giedo van der Garde — who had been the team's 2014 reserve driver — obtained a partial arbitration award upholding his contract for a race seat, after the team had instead signed Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson. An Australian court ordered Sauber to allow van der Garde to race. Van der Garde subsequently agreed to forego Melbourne and, three days after the race, reached a settlement accepting US$16 million in compensation.
On 20 July 2016, Swiss investment firm Longbow Finance — whose owners included Finn Rausing, Stefan Persson, and Karl-Johan Persson — bought both Peter Sauber's and Monisha Kaltenborn's shares, becoming sole owner. The team scored only two points in 2016. In 2017 Kaltenborn departed as team principal; she was replaced by former Renault team principal Frédéric Vasseur.
In 2018 Sauber announced a multi-year technical and commercial partnership with Alfa Romeo, renaming to Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team. Charles Leclerc and Marcus Ericsson drove that season; the team scored 48 points and finished eighth in the Constructors' Championship. Leclerc departed for Scuderia Ferrari for 2019, replaced by returning Kimi Räikkönen. For 2019 the team was renamed Alfa Romeo Racing and scored 57 points, finishing eighth. From 2019 to 2021 Räikkönen and Antonio Giovinazzi formed the driver pairing; Räikkönen retired after the 2021 season. Valtteri Bottas and rookie Zhou Guanyu joined for 2022, the team's best finish since 2012 as Alfa Romeo F1 Team. In January 2023 the team adopted online casino Stake as title sponsor, becoming Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake, with the Kick streaming platform's branding replacing Stake in markets where gambling advertising was restricted. Sauber ended its Alfa Romeo relationship after 2023.
For 2024 and 2025 the team competed as Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber (or Kick Sauber where gambling advertising laws applied). The 2024 season produced only four points. Nico Hülkenberg arrived from Haas for 2025 alongside reigning Formula 2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto. Mattia Binotto served as team principal until Jonathan Wheatley joined on 1 April 2025 following an early release from his Red Bull gardening leave. At the 2025 British Grand Prix, Hülkenberg finished third — his first career podium after 239 starts and Sauber's first podium since the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix.
On 26 October 2022, Sauber had announced it would compete as the Audi factory team from 2026 using Audi's power unit. Audi acquired a minority stake in the Sauber Group in January 2023 and completed a full takeover on 8 March 2024. The Hinwil facility and its assets formed the chassis construction and sporting basis of the incoming Audi F1 Team.
Sauber pioneered several innovations that became Formula One standards: high cockpit side walls (introduced following Wendlinger's 1994 crash), longitudinally-mounted gearboxes, and the twin keel front suspension. The team became known for introducing young talent, including Räikkönen, Massa, Frentzen, and Vettel.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
Gallery · 4 related images
