Sauber

- Published on Dec 5th, 2010 by The Badger

After building his team up over two decades Peter Sauber finally took the plunge and entered F1 in 1993. The Swiss squad got off to a great start, with J.J Letho scoring points for fifth on their debut in South Africa.

Over the next few years the team proved a solid and sensible competitor, often signing promising drivers or wily old campaigners with good results. Heinz-Harald Frentzen scored their first podium at the Italian GP of 1995, a feat the team would repeat five more times over the subsequent decade.

Their finest season came in 2001, when Prost reject Nick Heidfeld was paired with Finnish rookie Kimi Raikkonen. The results were superb for the little Swiss team, who took an all-time best constructors' championship finish of fourth.

In 2006 Sauber sold the majority of his team to BMW and handed over control to the German marque. Although they still bore the Sauber name the team was now, in effect, a factory BMW effort. This brought about their most successful period, with the Bavarian manufacturer pumping mega bucks in to the team in the persuit of Grand Prix glory. The promotion of Robert Kubica to a race seat in late 2006, alongside experienced returnee Heidfeld, would also prove vital.

However when the manufacturer quit F1 at the close of the 2009 season Peter Sauber, rather reluctantly, retook the reigns in an effort to save the team. Driver-wise he stuck to the old formula: a hungry young charger in Kamui Kobayashi and a seasoned pro in Pedro de la Rosa. Whilst the latter would prove a disappointment the former was one of the stars of the season, scoring a good haul of points and often lighting up races with his overtaking moves. He remains for 2011, joined by highly-rated and well-funded Mexican Sergio Perez. This line-up, in addition to the wise head of Sauber and rising star tech boss James Key, makes the team equally capable of producing shock results now as they were a decade ago.