TREMAYNE: Why I’ll always have a soft spot for F1 stalwarts Sauber

The Sauber name is disappearing from the Formula 1 grid next season when the team will become the Audi works outfit. To mark this longstanding name bowing out of the sport, we asked F1 Hall of Fame journalist David Tremayne for his best memories of the Swiss team’s three decades of Grand Prix racing…

I’ve been lucky enough to work for several F1 teams over the years, writing their daily press releases at races. Of them all, Peter Sauber’s became my favourite. Which is funny, because when I told friends in the paddock of my new job, several of them turned their noses up. Sauber was Swiss-German and therefore, apparently, “boring”.

Most of them hadn’t bothered going there for information when they arrived in 1993, with the pretty C12 powered by Mercedes’ V10 engine, designed by Harvey Postlethwaite and driven by JJ Lehto and Karl Wendlinger.