Sauber Launch the C22 in Zurich

The Sauber Formula One team officially unveiled their C22, the car the Swiss outfit will use to compete in the 2003 Championship.

The car, the eleventh Grand Prix machine from the Hinwil-based squad, made its track debut back at the start of January and has been tested extensively in Spain, albeit sporting no livery, before today's official presentation in Switzerland, near the Zurich airport.

The car's presentation will be followed by a public event, which will take place in the evening in co-operation with the "Movenpick Art on Ice" show in the "Hallenstadion" in Zurich.

Sauber, who last season finished in fifth place in the Constructors' Championship, will again use Petronas-badged Ferrari engines the for 2003 season, entering their seventh consecutive year of partnership with the Italian World Champions.

The C22, which was unveiled along with drivers Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Nick Heidfeld, is "new from A-Z" the Ferrari-powered team said.

"We've used a completely new design approach in creating this vehicle," said technical director Willy Rampf. "Compared to its predecessor, we're expecting it to offer a significantly higher potential that we'll be able to exploit throughout the season."

Sauber celebrate the 10th anniversary of their Grand Prix debut this year, when Finn JJ Lehto scored a fifth-place finish in the South African Grand Prix at Kyalami in 1993 behind the wheel of a C12 on March 14. Since then staff numbers at Sauber has increased from 70 to 280 and the budget for a single season has increased four-fold.

Sauber have competed in 163 Grands Prix since Lehto's points-scoring debut, missing only two events. In 1994 they did not compete in Monaco after Karl Wendlinger's serious crash in practice and in 2000 they pulled out of the Brazilian Grand Prix because of rear-wing failure.