Team BMW Sauber

History in F1
Team BMW Sauber is a misnomer for this season, as BMW exited F1 in 2009 and sold the team back to Peter Sauber for this season. The team is entered as BMW Sauber, but may change its name. The previous BMW Sauber team entered the F1 racing scene in 2006. Sauber on the other hand has a much longer F1 history. Sauber was founded in the 1970s by Swiss national, Peter Sauber. Peter Sauber is still the Team Principal and is an electrician by training and designed and built his first race car, the C1, back in 1970. BMW bought the team in 2005 to enter F1 and sold the team back to Sauber in 2009.

For all its history and Peter Sauber's background in race car engineering and design, the team do not have an impressive record. Since its debut race in the 1992 South African Grand Prix, the team has completed 281 races to date, with only one victory (2008 Canadian Grand Prix) and one pole position. It has yet to win a Constructors' or Drivers' Championship titles.

Technical Details & Statistics

Sauber has a long history with several car makers, originally starting with a collaboration with Mercedes, then Ford, Ferrari and BMW. This season, Sauber will be running the Ferrari 056 2.4L V8 engine and Sauber C29 chassis. The Sauber C29 chassis was unveiled in January at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Spain and with no sponsors, was running a pretty much blank livery. But since then, the team has agreed to carry the logo of Burger King Spain. Sauber's chassis all start with C, which stands for Christine, his wife.

Base: Hinwil (Switzerland)
Team principal: Peter Sauber
Main drivers: Pedro de la Rosa & Kamui Kobayashi
Engine: Ferrari 056
Chassis: C29
Debut F1 season: 1993
World Championship titles: 0
Highest race finish: 1 (x1)
Pole position: 1
Fastest lap times: 2

Drivers

Driver 1: Pedro de la Rosa
Coming from six-years of being a test driver for Team McLaren, de la Rosa has a lot to prove as the leading driver for BMW Sauber. De la Rosa already has a long career in F1, dating back to when he started as a test driver for Team Jordan in 1999. With more experience than most of his competitors de la Rosa has a chance to shine this F1 season.

Driver Statistics:
Nationality: Spain
Date of birth: 24 February 1971
World Championship titles: 0
Number of Grand Prix won: 0
Pole positions: 0
Career points: 29
Podiums: 1

Driver 2: Kamui Kobayashi
Kobayashi's F1 career started in 2007, when he joined Team Toyota as a reserve driver. However, he only starting racing in 2009 and his first race was the Brazilian Grand Prix, where he came in 9th. Still young, at only 24, Kobayashi still needs to hone his skills as a driver, having had to retire out of each race this season thus far.

Driver Statistics:
Nationality: Japan
Date of birth: 13 September 1986
World Championship titles: 0
Number of Grand Prix won: 0
Pole positions: 0
Career points: 3
Podiums: 0