20 years of Sauber F1 - from the C12 to the C32
In 1993, Peter Sauber switched from sports cars to Formula 1 monopostos. The sports car had won everything there was to win, the 24 Hours of Le Mans (1989), as well as the Group C World Championship twice (1989 and 1990).
With the help of Mercedes Benz, Peter Sauber made the step into F1 in 1993. With the black C12 of Harvey Postlethwaite and Leo Ress and the two drivers Karl Wendlinger (A) and JJ Lehto (Fin), the first Grand Prix season started in Kyalami (SA) with a 5th place (Lehto).
Highs and lows followed in the next 20 years. The highlights were certainly the fourth place overall in the Constructors' Championship in 2001 with Kimi Räikkönen and Nick Heidfeld, as well as the double victory under BMW colors at the Canadian GP in Montreal in 2008 with Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld at the wheel.
The biggest low point was Karl Wendlinger's serious accident in the Monaco harbor chicane in 1994. 17 years later, Sergio Pérez suffered an identical accident in the same place in 2011. Thanks to the greatly increased passive safety of modern vehicles (raised cockpit walls with safety padding) and the improved race tracks (much better impact protection at the edge of the track), this crash "only" ended with a concussion.
The 20th season in 2012 was certainly one of the most successful, with four podium finishes for Sergio Pérez (Malaysia, Canada and Italy) and Kamui Kobayashi (Japan). The C31 was hardly inferior to the competition and fought wheel-to-wheel against Ferrari and Mercedes. If it hadn't been for the two zero laps in Monaco and Spa, which were no fault of their own, they could even have finished 5th in the constructors' championship.
But now the new season is upon us. We wish the fantastic new C32-Ferrari design by Matt Morris, with Niko Hülkenberg (D) and Esteban Gutiérrez (Mex) at the wheel, every success in the 2013 F1 World Championship.
