After Alfa Romeo’s return in 2018 as a name sponsor, the team has had mediocre times. The bomb drops after a disappointing season in 2023. The Italian sponsor decides to withdraw. The Swiss team of Sauber signs a new deal with sponsor Stake, continuing under a new name in 2024: Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber. With the arrival of Audi in 2026, the Swiss team must prove its worth.
Alfa Romeo was founded in 1910 and just a year later, the car manufacturer from Milan decided to enter car races, an ideal way to bring the brand to the attention of potential customers. What starts small grows into a huge operation in the 1920s, which, however, begins to suffer losses after the economic recession. In the 1930s, Enzo Ferrari lends a helping hand. The later founder of the world-famous sports car brand himself raced with Alfa’s and takes over the racing activities of Alfa.
World Champions
The Second World War interrupts Ferrari’s ambitions, but when the first Formula 1 races are organized in the late 1940s (even before the official World Championship of 1950), Alfa Romeo is back in the game. Ferrari himself has already parted ways with Alfa in a dispute and competes under his own name against the brand from Milan. However, before Ferrari gets a foothold in Formula 1, it is the Alfa’s that rule the Grand Prix circuits. Giuseppe Farina and Juan Manuel Fangio become the first world champions in the premier class on behalf of Alfa Romeo in 1950 and 1951. Alfa Romeo has seen enough and withdraws from Formula 1.
Brief Return
In the 1960s and 1970s, Alfa Romeo still supplies power units to various teams, but it is not until the late 1970s that a completely new own team is registered for Formula 1. Initially under the name Autodelta, but from 1980 as Team Alfa Romeo with drivers like Mario Andretti, Riccardo Patrese, and Vittorio Brambilla. Major successes are absent and Alfa Romeo stops as a constructor in 1985.
Collaboration with Sauber
The return in 2018 is still cautious. In the first year of collaboration with Sauber, the team is still called Alfa Romeo Sauber F1, but from 2019 the name Sauber disappears definitively and the team is fully named Alfa Romeo Racing. This name change somewhat detracts from the rich history of Peter Sauber’s Formula 1 team. That Swiss team has been participating in Formula 1 since 1993, making it one of the most experienced racing stables on the grid.
Origins of Sauber Motorsport
Sauber Motorsport was founded in the 1970s. The team was initially active in hill climbing and sports cars until it made the leap to Formula 1 in 1993. The early years are turbulent, Sauber ties the ends together with engine and sponsorship deals, but real results are not really achieved. These only come in the 2000s when Sauber teams up with BMW and finishes second in the World Constructors’ Championship (2007) under the name BMW Sauber. The highlight is Sauber’s only victory to date: that of Robert Kubica in the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix. When BMW subsequently sells its share in the team back to Peter Sauber, lean times return.
Midfield Performance
Under Alfa Romeo, the team has certainly improved financially in recent years, but real sporting success has not (yet) returned. The team performs well in the midfield. In 2022, the team finishes sixth in the battle for the constructors’ title and manages to keep Aston Martin behind. Something they fail to do the following year, partly because Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu can’t make a significant impact in the Alfa Romeo. It is possible that the new takeover by Audi – in 2026 – can revive old times. However, in 2023 the team slips further down. They finish ninth in the constructors’ championship, which calls for change. Can the team, now active under the name Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber, turn the tide in 2024?
Key Information about F1 Team Sauber
Team Principal: Alessandro Alunni Bravi
Technical Director: James Key
Chief Designer: Eric Gandelin
Test Drivers 2024: Théo Pourchaire
Headquarters: Hinwil, Switzerland
Grand Prix Debut: British Grand Prix, 1950
Driver Titles: 2 (1950, 1951)
Constructor Titles: None
Final Standings 2023: 9th
Driver Profiles
Valtteri Bottas #77
Nationality: Finnish
Date of Birth: August 29, 1989
Grand Prix Debut: Australian Grand Prix, 2013
World Titles: None
Final Standings 2023: 15th
Guanyu Zhou #24
Nationality: Chinese
Date of Birth: May 30, 1999
Grand Prix Debut: Bahrain Grand Prix, 2022
World Titles: None
Final Standings 2023: 18th
