13 Facts About Peter Sauber

Peter Paul Sauber was born on 13 October 1943 and is a retired Swiss motorsport executive.

Peter Sauber was the team principal and owner of various motorsports teams, most visibly the eponymous Sauber Formula One team.

Peter Sauber competed in hillclimbing events in a Volkswagen Beetle he had purchased, and thus the foundations for his first project as a team owner were laid.

Peter Sauber subsequently drove it to the 1970 Swiss hillclimb championship.

Peter Sauber had started to gain a portfolio of customers and in 1973, Peter Sauber built three C3 spec chassis for different customers.

In 1982, with BASF sponsorship, Peter Sauber returned to sports car racing.

Peter Sauber now began to look seriously at launching an F1 team.

Peter Sauber did convince Mercedes to enter F1 in 1994 but a year later the German company did a deal with McLaren, leaving Peter Sauber to become the Ford F1 works team.

Peter Sauber began buying old Ferrari engines and rebadging them as Sauber Petronas V10s but the F1 engine program itself was scrapped in 1998.

Peter Sauber worked with BMW to develop a rescue package that would allow the team to continue in the sport without the manufacturer's backing.

In May 2012, Peter Sauber transferred a one-third stake in the Peter Sauber Group to Monisha Kaltenborn, the team's CEO and his designated successor.

Peter Sauber remains President of the Sauber Group's board of directors.

In July 2016 Longbow Finance, a Swiss investment company, bought Peter Sauber Motorsport gaining complete ownership.