Following the new fashion in Formula 1 for going retro, 2010 saw the return of Sauber as a privateer. With BMW pulling out, the team was re-bought by founder Peter Sauber. That was great news as it saved the jobs of all the team staff and kept Sauber's brilliant factory open. And it was certainly better than having that Qadbak company in charge.
Truth be told, Peter Sauber wasn't that keen on buying his team back. Being in his 60's and having founded his team in 1970 in sportscars and run it up to 2005 and still been involved afterwards, he was looking forward to retirement, so he does want to find a good buyer at some point.
Thankfully the FIA had the sense to grant Sauber an entry for 2010. A deal was struck to run customer Ferrari engines (which frankly are pretty rubbish - no customer Ferrari team has ever enjoyed great success). So the official entry name strangely, was BMW Sauber - Ferrari. The team kept the BMW name seemingly because it was too late to go through the whole process of having it changed. Perhaps it was to return the favour BMW had given them, when they kept the Sauber name (and earned a lot of respect from me and all Sauber fans in doing so).
It was very interesting to see what the new Sauber would look like - what colour they would go with. In the end, it actually didn't look that different. The white remained white. But everywhere else had become black. it did look different to me though and I really liked it, although the lack of sponsors was a concern.
The other interesting was who would now drive for the team. It wasn't long before a driver was announced - Kamui Kobayashi.
Truth be told, Peter Sauber wasn't that keen on buying his team back. Being in his 60's and having founded his team in 1970 in sportscars and run it up to 2005 and still been involved afterwards, he was looking forward to retirement, so he does want to find a good buyer at some point.
Thankfully the FIA had the sense to grant Sauber an entry for 2010. A deal was struck to run customer Ferrari engines (which frankly are pretty rubbish - no customer Ferrari team has ever enjoyed great success). So the official entry name strangely, was BMW Sauber - Ferrari. The team kept the BMW name seemingly because it was too late to go through the whole process of having it changed. Perhaps it was to return the favour BMW had given them, when they kept the Sauber name (and earned a lot of respect from me and all Sauber fans in doing so).
It was very interesting to see what the new Sauber would look like - what colour they would go with. In the end, it actually didn't look that different. The white remained white. But everywhere else had become black. it did look different to me though and I really liked it, although the lack of sponsors was a concern.
The other interesting was who would now drive for the team. It wasn't long before a driver was announced - Kamui Kobayashi.
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