Peter Sauber celebrates his 80th birthday

Friday the 13th is considered an unlucky day, but this is unlikely to apply to Peter Sauber, who celebrates his 80th birthday today. Sauber can safely be called a legendary personality, because without him it is unlikely that a Swiss team would have appeared in Formula 1.

It all started more than half a century ago with his passion for motorsports: in the basement of his parents’ house he built his very first racing car, called the C1, and took part in high-speed hill climb competitions. It is also worth mentioning the fact that the letter C in the model index is the first letter of the name Christiane, his wife.

The Sauber team, founded by Peter Sauber in Hinwil, has since changed its name more than once, but in the indices of all the cars it makes this letter is invariably present, and now Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou are competing in the World Championship in the C43.

Even if the hero of the day has been retired for a long time and rarely communicates with the press, his merits are well remembered in Switzerland, and today texts dedicated to him have appeared in many newspapers. Moreover, Mr. Sauber still actively monitors everything that happens in the world of Formula 1.

“I am proud that the company I founded in Hinwil in 1970 still exists and continues to grow,” Sauber told Swiss radio station SRF.

He has no formal relationship with the team, now called Alfa Romeo, as he parted with his share of the shares in 2016, but he still visits the base in Hinwil, and sometimes you can see him at the races.

“Emotionally I am still closely connected to Formula 1. Every year I go to two or three Grand Prix and watch the rest on TV,” Sauber emphasized.

He himself stopped racing in the early 1970s and entrusted it to others, but switched completely to making racing equipment and really succeeded. In 1989, his team’s C9 sports prototypes took two first places at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and Team Sauber Mercedes won the World Endurance Championship – then called the World Sportscar Championship – twice in 1989 and 1990.

And in 1993, the Sauber team made its debut in Formula 1, and a few years later Heinz-Harald Frentzen opened the scoring for his podiums, finishing third in Monza with a C14. In 2001, the Swiss team took 4th place in the Constructors’ Championship, and Peter Sauber considers this one of his most important successes – of course, together with the victory at Le Mans.

Sauber’s merits obviously include his ability to discover racing talents, because it was in his team that famous drivers, who later became world champions, such as Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel made their debut in Formula 1, and Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc competed. to this day in Formula 1 and still achieves the podium.

The team he founded has gone through different periods in its history and hasn’t always been successful, but that’s probably not the point. The brainchild of the contemporary hero of the day is still present in Formula 1, and in 2026 the Audi factory team created on its basis should debut in the championship. However, the points that both Alfa Romeo drivers achieved last Sunday can also be considered a good gift for Peter Sauber.