http://www.sauber.ch
Sauber is one of the few teams to enter F1 this decade and not founder within a handful of seasons. Despite this, there is a general sense of disappointment that the team has not achieved more, having had ample budgets, strong engines and some brilliant drivers.
Following a successful partnership in sportscars with Mercedes, when the team won the Group C title in 1989 and 1990, Peter Sauber moved into F1 in 1993, retaining Mercedes' backing.
In Sauber's debut grand prix, JJ Lehto got things off to an excellent start by finishing in fifth. The team took joint sixth in the Constructors' Championship. In 1994, Heinz-Harald Frentzen joined Karl Wendlinger at the team. With increased sponsorship and support from Mercedes, much was expected. The prophetically-dubbed C13 looked quick and Frentzen flew at times. However, a nasty crash for Wendlinger at Monaco left the Austrian in a coma, and funding for the team collapsed when a sponsor defaulted.
The relationship with Mercedes was damaged by this, after the engine manufacturer was left the task of finding a new title sponsor and making up the funsing shortfall.
In 1995, the valuable Mercedes engine deal was lost as the German giant switched to McLaren. It was quickly replaced with a Ford works contract, but Sauber's fortunes didn’t improve, despite some impressive performances from Frentzen.
The following year the new Stewart Grand Prix team announced it had an exclusive five-year deal with Ford, putting Sauber's supply into serious doubt. The loss of Heinz-Harald Frentzen to Williams provided a double blow, but its future was secured with a deal to run one-year-old Ferrari engines in 1997, rebadged by Malaysian industrial sponsor Petronas.
With 1996 signing Johnny Herbert continuing with the team, and qualifying a fine seventh on the grid at Melbourne, things looked good for 1997. But, lack of development and repeated driver changes in the second car meant the team effectively stayed still for the remainder of the season whilst everyone else improved.
Jean Alesi joined the team for 1998 and drove brilliantly on many occasions. However the atmosphere in the team became difficult after Alesi and Herbert fell out, with the Englishman’s performances suffering as a result.
Herbert moved to Stewart for 1999, and was replaced by Brazilian Pedro Diniz. The Ferrari engines did not bring the expected performance boost, and technical director Leo Ress departed halfway through the year. A shakeup in the technical staff ought to bring a hike in pace, but the team will need to dig deep if it is to find its way out of the mid-grid doldrums it has fallen into. In 2000 Mika Salo made his comeback as an F1 regular alongside Diniz. He will not return for 2001 - having signed up to the New Toyota team to prepare for their entry into F1.
2000 Result - Eighth in Constructors' Championship, six points, no wins
2001 Line-up
- Nick Heidfeld, Kimi Raikkonen