After the double diffusers, F-ducts and blown exhausts of the past few seasons, Peter Sauber is sure a "revolutionary invention" has not yet been seen in 2012. The world of F1 watched the opening pre-season test of 2012 play out last week at Jerez, where clever solutions to the new exhaust clampdown and Mercedes' innovative F-duct-style front wing circulated at speed. "The big question," agreed team boss Sauber, "is whether anyone has come up with another revolutionary invention after the banning of the adventurous engine […]

Sauber driver Kamui Kobayashi has said that the first test has been a successful one for the Swiss team. Kobayashi shared testing duties with team mate Sergio Perez and suffered a few technical issues. Nevertheless, the Japanese driver was upbeat. “If I look at the whole picture I am happy with the first test. For sure we have found the right direction to go in." He said. "The car didn’t surprise us with any big issues, which allowed us to work on improvements straight away. […]

Sauber's 2012 car has an ugly bump on its nose, boss Peter Sauber has hinted. Before the launch of the unseemly Caterham, Ferrari officials admitted their own Maranello built car is also "ugly" due to new regulations. For this year, the FIA is requiring the pointed nose of the cars to be lower, while the actual monocoque height stays the same. In the wind tunnels around Europe, it is believed most teams have found that the best solution is to radically taper the nose, despite […]

Sauber came tantalisingly close to a major sponsorship deal with UBS, the Zurich based global financial services company. It emerged recently that, before deciding to sponsor the entire sport last year, UBS chief executive Oswald Grubel wanted instead to link the brand with an individual team. Blick claims that team was Hinwil based Sauber, and the newspaper has now published three 'secret' photographs to prove it. The newspaper said Grubel is friends with the similarly-aged team owner Peter Sauber, and that the sponsor tie-up came […]

Sauber on Friday revealed that its 2012 car will be ready for the first test of the pre-season. The Swiss team announced in a statement that the Ferrari-powered C31 will be launched at Jerez on 6 February, the day before the start of the official group test at the southern Spanish circuit. Hinwil based Sauber has retained 2011 drivers Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez for next season. With the C30, they secured seventh place in the constructors' world championship in 2011, scoring more points than […]

The teams alliance FOTA looks set to dwindle to just seven members, as Sauber confirms it is pulling out amid speculation Toro Rosso will shortly follow. With HRT already a non-member, the latest development follows last week's news that the biggest-budget Ferrari and Red Bull teams had pulled out. International media reports quoted official spokespeople for Swiss based team Sauber as confirming that notice has been given to FOTA chairman Martin Whitmarsh. "The reasons were communicated to the teams of the association, but they will […]

Kamui Kobayashi has admitted he had a difficult season as 'lead driver' with Sauber in 2011. As a rookie, the Japanese spent his first full season in F1 in 2010 alongside highly experienced teammates Pedro de la Rosa and Nick Heidfeld. But this year, the 25-year-old shared the Swiss team's garage with rookie Sergio Perez, ultimately finishing the season with double the Mexican's haul of points. Kobayashi, however, admits that the role as the key Sauber driver "certainly wasn't easy for me". "I needed to […]

Formula one appears unlikely to tweak the current qualifying format despite concerns in 2011 about a flagging spectacle. Overall, the 'knockout' format has been popular in recent years, with fast drivers graduating from the Q1 segment to Q2, and then from Q2 to the decisive top-ten Q3 session. But in 2011, with fresh sets of Pirelli's heavily-degrading tyres at an unprecedented premium, a tactic increasingly deployed is for a driver to move into the next 'Q' segment but then sit out the actual session. By […]

Sauber is ruing a cost-cutting decision that ultimately will cost the Swiss team millions. In July, amid the blown diffuser rules debacle, the Hinwil based team decided to scrap the technology that ultimately will disappear from F1 for 2012. Other midfield teams, however, pressed ahead and Sauber now stands to drop behind the charging Toro Rosso team to finish probably eighth in the constructors' championship. Referring to the Concorde Agreement income distribution tables, Blick newspaper said the decision has effectively cost Sauber many millions. "We […]

Sergio Perez has admitted that he played a joke on his engineers during his run to eighth place at the Japanese Grand Prix, by telling them that he was losing power during the final laps. The Mexican rookie drove a superb race at Suzuka to climb from 17th on the grid to eighth, and was so secure in the closing stages that he allowed him a prank at the expense of the nervous engineers on Sauber’s pit wall. “They were very excited that we were […]

Peter Sauber branded Sergio Perez’s performance at the Japanese Grand Prix as 'brilliant' after the Mexican translated a 17-place start into eighth place and four points. Perez had suffered a hydraulics problem in Q1 on Saturday, which sidelined him from the second segment of the grid shoot-out and left him starting 17th. But a long first race stint on the medium tyre compound vaulted the Mexican up the order and two late bursts on the soft tyre handed Perez his fourth points finish of the […]

Without setting a time in the decisive Q3 at Suzuka, local hero Kamui Kobayashi moved up three places and will start the race from seventh. The provisional results had showed the Japanese in tenth place, as the driver with the highest race number behind fellow non-runners Michael Schumacher, Bruno Senna and Vitaly Petrov. Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali hit out at the growing trend of drivers sitting out qualifying in order to save tyres for the race. "I think it shows something is not right […]