Green Hope. Sauber enters the most difficult season in its history because the Swiss team is experiencing yet another metamorphosis, with a mutation that is not just a change of skin, but something deeper that will touch the roots of the team that debuted in the F1 World Championship in the 1993 South African GP with JJ Lehto and Karl Wendlinger.
In truth, Peter Sauber's reality had already had to deal with brands such as Mercedes, Ferrari and BMW for which it has historically been used to changing faces, but this time we are faced with a gradual radical transformation.
The C44 which will be shown on February 5th, will be the first F1 2024 to be seen together with Williams: the Hinwil team is playing in advance, to discover its cards for a season that will have to make us forget the disappointing last championship which ended in ninth place constructors' championship, just ahead of Haas, the other Ferrari customer team.
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
The C43 with the fluorescent green paint: in 2024 the C44 will have the Hope color base
At Sauber they want to give the feeling that they didn't just remove the Alfa Romeo stickers, after a collaboration that lasted six years. So what better idea than to drastically change the color of the single-seater from the traditional red of the “biscione” to a green that will compete with Aston Martin.
According to rumours, in fact, the AMR24 will no longer be the only “greenie” on the grid, since Alessandro Alunni Bravi's staff has chosen a livery that identifies the clean cut with the recent past. Not only that, and here lies the difficulty, there is also the need to create a bridge situation while waiting for the Audi brand to officially appear with its well-known colour, given that the German VW Group company is gradually taking over the shares by Finn Rausing, the Swede who controls the team.
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Audi Sport F1
The four rings currently hold 25% of the shares, but will reach 75% by the end of next year, in order to have control of the structure in view of the debut of the German brand in the 2026 world championship with the new power units which will have 50 % of electricity.
A transformation is underway that touches the DNA of the Swiss team and, therefore, the idea of presenting itself with an unusual color makes sense and helps to convey the concept of a break with the past. Green is the color of the cloth on the gaming table and is therefore perfectly in line with Stake, leader of online casinos.
Stake took over Alfa Romeo as title sponsor, naming the team that no longer features the original Sauber. And green is also a color compatible with Kick, the live streaming platform that supports the Stake.com empire, always under the watchful eye of Edward Craven, who wants to expand online gambling thanks to F1.
Photo by: Motorsport Images
Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative, Stake F1 Team
If Alunni Bravi will have the task of managing the 2024 and 2025 seasons of… Sauber, the German Andreas Seidl will have to build the structure that transforms a Ferrari customer team like the one in Hinwil into an official team. And this is the most complex job because the German factory of the Audi Motorsport Competence Center in Neuburg an der Donau is being added in parallel to the Swiss factory where the new power unit is being created.
The uncertainties about the presence of Audi in F1, recently dispelled by the new CEO of the brand Gernot Döllner, after months of speculation which suggested a strong doubt on the part of the top management of the VW Group about entering the GPs, has made Seidl's work almost problematic as he found himself receiving denials from the technicians who had been contacted, precisely because of doubts about the program.
“There is a clear decision by the Board of Management and Supervisory Boards of Audi and Volkswagen that Audi will enter Formula 1 in 2026. The plan is in place,” Döllner, Audi President, made official in his first interview since taking office.
At the moment the doubts would not have been completely dispelled because the information filtering from Neuburg speaks of a 2026 power unit rather behind schedule. After all, it is the dog that bites its tail: if there are not enough qualified personnel to evolve the F1 engine, the project cannot be in line with the timing, but if this were the case it becomes unattractive for the engineers who have been contacted.
Photo by: Alfa Romeo
James Key, technical director of Stake F1 Team
As for the green single-seater, we know that it represents a clear break with the C43 which disappointed in 2023: the car was designed by James Key after his “expulsion” from McLaren. The British coach returned to Hinwil after a first experience in 2010 when he replaced Willy Rampf.
Around the Ferrari power unit and the Sauber gearbox which had allowed the C43 to have a push rod rear suspension at the rear, it is reasonable to expect a change in the layout at the front with the introduction of the pull rod that James himself had wanted on his “papaya” cars ”.
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Valtteri Bottas confirmed by Sauber in 2024
The Stake F1 Team confirmed the two drivers: Valtteri Bottas still had one year left on his contract and was kept, although his performance last year was often disappointing in comparison with Guanyu Zhou. The Chinese driver also did not impress, losing himself in an uncompetitive single-seater: he was saved by the sponsorship he brought with him from China, but this year he will have to show a leap in quality to remain in F1, given that Audi will have to move on the market to take at least one top driver, in line with the status of a manufacturer that will arrive in the paddock to challenge the other major manufacturers.
As you can see, the picture is very complex, even if all the contents are there to aim for a step forward compared to the terrible 2023 season…
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