Each of the team's cars, with the exception of cars built by BMW Sauber, were designated a number preceded by the letter C to honour Peter Sauber's wife, Christiane.
Peter Sauber built the C1 in his parents' garage to compete in the 1970 Swiss Sports Car Championship. The open-cockpit tubular chassis was powered by a 1.0L Cosworth engine. The C2 iterated on this design, increasing engine power to 1.6L and taking Sauber's first three race wins in domestic hillclimbing. The 2.0L Cosworth-powered C4 introduced Sauber to continental competition, winning one race in the 1975 European 2-Litre Sportscar Championship. The C5 was designed for the step up to Le Mans for 1977, and led the Group 6 class before retiring in both 1977 and 1978. The C5 did deliver Sauber's first championship, winning the 1976 Interserie Championship with Swiss driver Herbert Müller.
After a one-year racing hiatus as a Lola F2 chassis builder, Sauber entered two cars in the 1980 BMW M1 Procar Championship. The series supported Formula One race weekends during the European season. Sauber achieved three consecutive pole positions with Marc Surer and Manfred Schurti in the middle of the season. When the series folded after 1980, Sauber heavily modified its cars to comply with Group 5 regulations, and the BMW M1 Sauber won the 1981 Nürburgring 1000km with Hans-Joachim Stuck and Nelson Piquet.
Sauber stepped up to Group C prototype racing in the World Sportscar Championship. The team's first top-category prototype, the Sauber SHS C6, was designed in partnership with Swiss firm Seger & Hoffmann. The car's distinctive "whale tail" rear wing and the BMW M88 power unit delivered a fifth-place finish in the 1982 World Sportscar Championship for Manufacturers, after which the two chassis were retired. The C7 debuted at the 1983 24 Hours of Le Mans and finished ninth overall, disrupting Porsche's dominance with the Porsche 956.
After Mercedes-Benz expressed an interest in returning to sports car racing, Sauber retired the BMW-powered C7 and adapted the chassis to take the Mercedes M117 turbocharged V8 power unit. Under an engine supplier partnership, the team raced the Sauber 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 and raced for Sauber/Kouros in 1987, where it struggled with reliability but set a Le Mans lap record with Johnny Dumfries.
In 1988, Mercedes gave the project full factory support and the team became known as Team Sauber Mercedes. Under the leadership of Jochen Neerpash and Max Welti as team directors, Jean-Louis Schlesser, Jochen Mass, and Mauro Baldi drove C9 No. 61 to victory in the season-opening 800km of Jerez. The team finished second in the 1988 championship in a strong fight against Jaguar and its XJR-9, and was forced to withdraw its two cars from the 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans on safety grounds after two high-speed tyre blowouts in practice.
Sauber dominated the 1989 World Sportscar Championship, winning all but one race and winning the World Sports Prototype Championship for Teams with nearly double the points of second-placed Joest Racing. Jean-Louis Schlesser won the driver's championship with five wins and led a Team Sauber Mercedes top-four lockout of the driver's standings. At Le Mans, Sauber locked out the front row and finished first, second, and fifth overall.
The C11 was due to replace the C9 for 1990, but a longer development timeline required the C9 to race the season opener. After a one-two finish proved its continued dominance, the C9 was retired. In 1990 Sauber dominated the championship again, winning all but one race, and won the 1990 Team's World Championship with over double the points of Silk Cut Jaguar. Jean-Louis Schlesser and Mauro Baldi were named co-champions on equal points. The junior drivers won two races in 1990: Karl Wendlinger joining Jochen Mass to win at Spa-Francorchamps, and Michael Schumacher winning a season finale at Mexico City.
Sauber-Mercedes struggled to adapt to Group C's regulation changes for 1991, which abolished existing engine rules and mandated 3.5L Formula One-style engines. The new C291 took the bespoke Mercedes M291 flat-12 engine, but struggled with reliability and raced alongside the prior year's C11 for much of the season. The team won only one race in 1991. A radical aerodynamic redesign for 1992, the C292, saw Mercedes pull its support on financial grounds during testing; the stillborn C292 never raced and Sauber withdrew its entry for the season.
Sauber intended to pivot to Formula One in direct collaboration with Mercedes, but the joint project was shelved and Mercedes funded Sauber's first engine contract instead. The team re-branded Ilmor V10 engines as Sauber power units, and the new Sauber C12 spent most of 1992 testing across Europe at Lurcy-Levis, Barcelona-Catalunya, and an airfield in Zweisimmen. The team signed JJ Lehto alongside former endurance driver Karl Wendlinger for the 1993 season.
On debut at the 1993 South African Grand Prix, Lehto qualified in sixth and finished fifth ahead of Gerhard Berger's Ferrari, achieving two points in a race of attrition. Impressive points finishes at San Marino, Montreal, and Monza prompted Mercedes to place "concept by Mercedes-Benz" stickers on the engine covers for the remainder of the season. Sauber finished seventh in the 1993 World Constructors' Championship, ahead of independents including Minardi and Jordan.
Mercedes joined as an official component in 1994, but the newly renamed Sauber-Mercedes regressed to eighth in the championship. Wendlinger was seriously injured after a practice crash at the Monaco Grand Prix, leaving him in a coma; Andrea de Cesaris stepped in as relief driver. Sauber re-engineered its cars with high cockpit side walls after the crash, which later became mandatory in the wake of Wendlinger's crash and the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger earlier that season. Mercedes left the team at the end of the year and joined McLaren.
As a result, Sauber inherited Benetton's works engine deal with Ford for 1995. In conjunction with the Ford deal, Sauber signed a ten-year sponsorship deal with energy drink company Red Bull; entrepreneur Dietrich Mateschitz purchased a majority share in the team. Karl Wendlinger returned alongside Heinz-Harald Frentzen, though Wendlinger was sacked in favour of Jean-Christophe Bouillon after just four races. Frentzen led the team to its largest F1 tally of eighteen points and scored the team's first podium at the 1995 Italian Grand Prix with a third-place finish. 1995 also marked the start of the team's long association with Petronas.
In 1996, the team scored only eleven points with the uncompetitive Cosworth JD engine but finished third with Johnny Herbert at the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix.
From 1997 until 2005, Sauber used Ferrari-designed customer engines and gearboxes built by Sauber Petronas Engineering. Sauber licensed nearly every legally licensable part from Ferrari and had several Ferrari engineers on staff. The first podium for Sauber-Petronas came at the 1997 Hungarian Grand Prix with a third-place finish, and another podium followed at the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix.
In 2001, Sauber brought Kimi Räikkönen into Formula One despite objections from some drivers and influential FIA members including Max Mosley. Räikkönen's performances vindicated the decision. Red Bull sold their majority share to Credit Suisse in protest, as Red Bull had preferred Enrique Bernoldi for the seat.
In 2004, Sauber invested in a new wind tunnel at Hinwil and a high-performance supercomputer named Albert to help refine aerodynamics. Sauber subsequently secured a deal with BMW for engines from 2006; following BMW's decision to split from Williams at the end of 2005, BMW agreed to take ownership of the team from 1 January 2006.
Sauber's final Grand Prix before the BMW takeover was the 2005 Chinese Grand Prix, with Felipe Massa scoring sixth in his final race for the team. Among notable Sauber drivers from this period were Jean Alesi, Felipe Massa, Johnny Herbert, and Jacques Villeneuve. Sauber had finished its independent run in F1 with six third places and two front-row starts as their best results.
At the end of the 2005 season, Credit Suisse's majority shareholding was bought by BMW, with Peter Sauber retaining a 20% stake, and the team was renamed BMW Sauber. The team held a German licence from 2006 to 2009.
For 2006, the team re-signed Nick Heidfeld from Williams as lead driver, confirmed 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve, and signed Robert Kubica as third driver. The new livery, unveiled in Valencia on 17 January 2006, was the traditional BMW M blue and white with red flashes. The team also announced a technical partnership with Intel and O2. Former Sauber title sponsor Petronas renewed their contract with the new team.
Jacques Villeneuve scored the team's first points with a seventh-place finish at the 2006 Malaysian Grand Prix. After BMW announced Kubica would complete the season, Villeneuve's F1 career ended. Kubica scored BMW Sauber's second podium at the Italian Grand Prix. Heidfeld scored the team's first podium at the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix from tenth on the grid. The team finished fifth in the Constructors' Championship.
Robert Kubica partnered Nick Heidfeld for 2007 with Sebastian Vettel as test and reserve driver. The new F1.07 was launched on 16 January 2007. At the Canadian Grand Prix, Kubica suffered a huge crash resulting in a long safety car period; he escaped with only a sprained ankle and concussion. Vettel substituted in the US Grand Prix, finishing eighth and becoming the youngest driver to score a Formula One World Championship point at the time. Heidfeld scored a second-place finish at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld continued for 2008. The F1.08 was launched at BMW Welt in Munich on 14 January 2008. In Bahrain, Kubica scored his and the team's first ever pole position, beating Felipe Massa by just under three hundredths of a second, and the team finished third and fourth in the race, going first in the Constructors' Championship for the first time.
BMW Sauber's first race victory came at the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix, with Robert Kubica's first race win and Nick Heidfeld taking second for a one-two finish. This was the first Formula One victory for a BMW engine since the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix. After the breakthrough win, development was switched to the 2009 season; Kubica remained with an outside chance of taking the Drivers' Championship until the Chinese Grand Prix, the 17th of 18 rounds.
Although BMW Sauber targeted 2009 as the year they would challenge for the title, their season was a disappointment. After six races the team had collected only six points. Following a BMW board meeting on 28 July 2009, the company confirmed the team's withdrawal from Formula One at the end of the season, with chairman Dr. Norbert Reithofer describing the decision as strategic.
On 27 November 2009, it was announced that Peter Sauber would repurchase the team. The FIA confirmed Sauber's entry for 2010 using Ferrari engines. Despite running under the BMW Sauber F1 Team name for the season without BMW components, the team fought back: the second half of the season produced 44 combined points, giving them eighth place in the Constructors' Championship.
Kamui Kobayashi joined in 2010 and Sergio Pérez for 2011. In 2012, Pérez finished second at the Malaysian Grand Prix — Sauber's best result as an independent team — and Kobayashi started third at the Chinese Grand Prix. At the Belgian Grand Prix, Kobayashi started second and Pérez fourth, the best grid positions in Sauber's history. Sauber scored four podiums in 2012 and Kobayashi took his first podium at the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix. Peter Sauber stepped back from daily management, handing the team principal role to Monisha Kaltenborn.
In 2013, Sauber signed Nico Hülkenberg and Esteban Gutiérrez. Hülkenberg put his car third on the grid for the Italian Grand Prix, outqualifying both Ferraris. Sauber finished seventh in the 2013 World Constructors' Championship with 57 points.
In 2015, the start of the season saw Sauber become involved in legal action commenced by 2014 reserve driver Giedo van der Garde. On 5 March 2015, van der Garde received a partial award under Swiss Chambers' Arbitration Institution upholding his contract for a race seat in 2015. Following intervention from Bernie Ecclestone and subsequent court proceedings in Australia, van der Garde confirmed on 18 March 2015 that he and Sauber had reached a settlement by mutual consent for US$16 million, relinquishing his right to race with the team.
On 20 July 2016, Swiss-based investment firm Longbow Finance announced it had bought both Peter Sauber and Monisha Kaltenborn's shares in the company. Longbow's owners were said to include Swedish billionaires Finn Rausing, Stefan Persson, and Karl-Johan Persson. Pascal Picci was announced as chairman of the board and president. Felipe Nasr's ninth-placed finish in the 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix scored the team's only two points of the season.
In April 2017, Sauber confirmed it would cancel its planned partnership with Honda for 2018 and instead signed a new multi-year agreement with Ferrari for up-to-date engines starting in 2018. In November 2017, the team announced a multi-year technical and commercial partnership with Alfa Romeo and was renamed Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team for 2018. Monisha Kaltenborn stepped down as team principal in 2017; her role was replaced by former Renault team principal Frédéric Vasseur.
For 2018, the team signed Charles Leclerc and Marcus Ericsson. Leclerc finished sixth in the 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix — the team's highest position since the 2015 Australian Grand Prix — and Sauber finished eighth in the 2018 Constructors' Championship with 48 points.
From 2019, the team competed as Alfa Romeo Racing. Kimi Räikkönen returned to drive alongside Antonio Giovinazzi. In Brazil during 2019, a collision between Alexander Albon and Lewis Hamilton promoted both Alfa Romeos into the top five: Räikkönen finished fourth and Giovinazzi fifth, securing 22 points. The team scored 57 points and finished eighth in the 2019 Constructors' Championship.
In 2021, Räikkönen tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix and was absent from that race and the Italian Grand Prix a week later; Robert Kubica stood in. Räikkönen announced his retirement after the season and the team signed Valtteri Bottas and rookie Zhou Guanyu for 2022. In 2022 the team entered as Alfa Romeo F1 Team and finished eighth in the Constructors' Championship — Sauber's best finish since 2012.
On 13 December 2022, Andreas Seidl was announced as Sauber's new chief executive officer. In January 2023, the team was renamed Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake following a title sponsorship agreement with online casino Stake. Sauber ended its relationship with Alfa Romeo at the end of the 2023 season.
For 2024, Sauber entered as Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber, continuing the Stake and Kick sponsorship deals. The 2024 car was named the Kick Sauber C44. Zhou and Bottas stayed on for 2024; the team finished tenth with only four points.
Nico Hülkenberg returned for 2025 alongside reigning Formula 2 Champion Gabriel Bortoleto. Jonathan Wheatley, former Red Bull sporting director, joined as Team Principal on 1 April 2025. At the 2025 British Grand Prix, Hülkenberg finished third — his first ever podium in Formula One after 239 race starts, and Sauber's first podium since the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix. In February 2025, Sauber announced a new technical centre to be opened in Bicester, England.
On 26 October 2022, it was announced that Sauber would compete as the Audi factory team from 2026, ending a sixteen-year customer engine relationship with Ferrari. In January 2023, Audi announced the acquisition of a minority stake in the Sauber Group. On 8 March 2024, the Audi Group confirmed a full takeover of Sauber. Mattia Binotto replaced Andreas Seidl as team principal from 1 August 2024.
In November 2018, Sauber entered a partnership with Czech team Charouz Racing System to form the Sauber Junior Team, followed by the creation of a karting team in March 2019. In 2020, Sauber relaunched the junior team as Sauber Academy and parted ways with Charouz.
Sauber pioneered several technologies that later became standards in Formula One: high cockpit side walls (introduced after the 1994 Monaco Grand Prix crash), longitudinally-mounted gearboxes, and the twin keel front suspension.
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