Sauber Motorsport
Sauber Motorsport AG was a Swiss motorsport engineering company and race team. Founded by Peter Sauber as PP Sauber AG in 1970, the team produced sports cars and later Formula One race cars as an independent constructor. In endurance racing, the team achieved two world championships and overall victory at the 1989 24 Hours of Le Mans with Mercedes-Benz. After entering Formula One in 1993, the team transformed multiple times but exited the sport in 2025 as the fourth-oldest constructor in history by races started. The team and its assets were acquired by Audi AG in 2024 to form the chassis construction and sporting basis of the Audi F1 Team.
Each of the team's cars, with the exception of cars built by BMW Sauber, were designated a number proceeded by the letter C to honor Peter Sauber's wife, Christiane. Starting with the C1, which was built in his parent's garage, Sauber's early cars competed in local Swiss championships. The team debuted in FIA competition with the Sauber C5, which competed in the 1977 24 Hour of Le Mans. Its most successful sports car, the Sauber C9, won two consecutive world endurance championships and brought Mercedes back to the World Sportscar Championship as Team Sauber Mercedes.
After Group C endurance regulations ended, the team entered Formula One independently despite a failed attempt to build a joint project with Mercedes. From 1993 to 2005 the team operated as a private constructor, becoming well known for introducing young talent including Heinz Harald-Frentzen, Kimi Räikkönen, and Felipe Massa. Sauber also pioneered many technological innovations which later became standards, such as high cockpit side walls, longitudinally-mounted gearboxes, and the twin keel front suspension.
Sauber was purchased by BMW in 2005 and raced as BMW Sauber F1 Team from 2006 to 2009. The team achieved its best Formula One results during this period, most notably winning the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix and finishing second in the 2007 World Constructor's Championship. However, the global financial crisis forced BMW to sell the team after the 2009 season, after which Peter Sauber reacquired his eponymous team for one euro.
As an independent constructor again from 2010 to 2025, the team purchased customer Ferrari power but struggled financially. Peter Sauber sold his controlling stake in the team to Finn Rausing in 2016, who reorganized the team's leadership and cancelled the team's confirmed engine switch to Honda. In 2018 the team signed a title sponsorship agreement with Alfa Romeo, and Sauber raced as Alfa Romeo Racing and later as Alfa Romeo F1 Team until 2023. The team was purchased by Audi AG in 2024 with the intention of transforming Sauber into Audi's manufacturer entry for 2026. In its final two seasons, the team competed as Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber or Kick Sauber based on local gambling sponsorship laws.
Sports car racing
built the C1 in his parent's 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 original 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 it led the Group 6 class before retiring in both 1977 and 1978. The C5 did deliver Sauber's first championship, however, 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. At the time, Procar supported Formula One race weekends during the European season and enabled BMW's embattled M1 cars to race despite Group 5 homologation issues. Sauber was moderately successful in Procar, achieving 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 the more powerful Group 5 regulations. With a radically redesigned frame and substantially less weight, the BMW M1 Sauber won the 1981 Nürburgring 1000km with Hans-Joachim Stuck and Nelson Piquet.
Sauber then stepped up to Group C prototype racing, which replaced Group 5 as the highest category of endurance 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 Sauber a fifth place finish in the 1982 World Sportscar Championship for Manufacturers, after which the two chassis were retired and sold. The C7 was built as an iteration of the SHS C6, debuting at the 1983 24 Hours of Le Mans and finishing ninth overall. The C7 famously disrupted Porsche's otherwise undisputed top-ten dominance in the overall standings with the Porsche 956, which later became immortalized in Porsche's 'Nobody's perfect' advertisement.
After Mercedes-Benz expressed an interest in returning to sports car racing, Sauber quickly 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. In 1985 the team failed to finish at Le Mans, but 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 behind the wheel. In 1988 Mercedes finally 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, and with Mercedes subdivision AEG-Olympia as the new primary sponsor, the C9s took five wins in the 1988 World Sportscar Championship. Jean-Louis Schlesser, Jochen Mass, and Mauro Baldi drove C9 No. 61 to victory in the season-opening 800km of Jerez, but the team finished second in the championship in a strong fight against Jaguar and its XJR-9. Unfortunately, the team lost its most points when it 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 the following season, but a longer development timeline required it to race the season opener for 1990. After a one-two finish proved the car's continued dominance, the C9 was finally retired.
In 1990, the team switched its race numbers from Nos. 61 and 62 to Nos. 1 and 2 on account of the previous year's success. Longtime team leader Beat Zehnder worked with Mercedes to introduce a Junior Team for 1990, and Sauber signed young drivers including Michael Schumacher, Karl Wendlinger, and Heinz-Harald Frentzen to drive the No. 2 car for the new season. Sauber dominated the championship again in 1990, winning all but one race for a second consecutive season and winning the 1990 Team's World Championship with over double the points of Silk Cut Jaguar. Jean-Louis Schlesser defended his driver's crown and was named co-champion on equal points with teammate Mauro Baldi. The junior drivers won two races in 1990, with Wendlinger joining Jochen Mass to win at Spa-Francorchamps and a season finale win for Schumacher at Mexico City. Notably, the team chose not to contest Le Mans in 1990 because it was designated a non-championship race for the World Sports Prototype Championship.
Sauber-Mercedes struggled to adapt to Group C's regulation changes for 1991, which abolished the existing engine rules and mandated 3.5L Formula One-style engines. The new C291 took the bespoke Mercedes M291 flat-12 engine, but it struggled heavily with reliability issues and raced alongside the prior year's C11 for much of the season. The team won only one race in 1991, slipping to a distant third in the team's championship as Jaguar returned to power. The team pushed ahead with a radical aerodynamic redesign for 1992 with the C292, but Mercedes pulled its support for the team on financial grounds during testing. The stillborn C292 never raced and Sauber withdrew its entry for the season. It remains unclear how many C292 chassis were produced and how many examples survive today.
Formula One
Sauber (1993–2005)
Beginning and partnership with Mercedes-Benz (1993–1994)
Sauber intended to pivot to Formula One in direct collaboration with Mercedes, but this joint project was shelved 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 even an airfield in Zweisimmen. The team signed experienced Formula One driver JJ Lehto to partner former Sauber endurance driver Karl Wendlinger for the 1993 season.On debut at the 1993 South African Grand Prix, Lehto qualified in sixth position and finished in fifth ahead of Gerhard Berger's Ferrari, achieving two points on debut in a race of attrition. The team struggled with engine reliability during the rest of the season but impressive points finishes at San Marino, Montreal, and Monza prompted Mercedes to place "concept by Mercedes-Benz" stickers on the engine cover of Sauber's cars for the remainder of the season. A seventh place finish in the 1993 World Constructors' Championship, ahead of independents including Minardi and Jordan, established Sauber as a credible entrant in an era of small and questionable back-marker teams.
Mercedes joined the team as an official component in 1994, but the newly-renamed Sauber-Mercedes regressed to eighth in the championship amid struggles with Mercedes-branded Ilmor 3.5L V10 engines. New entrant Pacific Grand Prix received a customer supply of Sauber's older-specification engines from the previous season, but the team faced financial woes after title sponsor Broker was found to be fraudulent and did not pay its sponsorship obligations. To make matters worse, Wendlinger was seriously injured after a practice crash at the Monaco Grand Prix, which left him in a coma and required Andrea de Cesaris to step in as a 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.
With the same points tally as the previous year, Mercedes left the team at the end of the year and joined McLaren after it terminated its existing deal with Peugeot. As a result, Sauber inherited Benetton's works engine deal with Ford for 1995 after it switched to Renault power for the following season.