Last Man Standing: interview with Peter Sauber

Puffing on one of his trademark cigars as the season came to an end, Peter Sauber let his mind relax and his memories melt out. For the quiet Swiss team chief it was the end of an era, the passing of the privateers, and a pointer towards a new bigger more commercial future for himself and for the sport.

This season marked the disappearance of not only Sauber, set up by Peter Sauber in 1993, but also Jordan, a private team set up two years previously by Eddie Jordan, Minardi, a private team set up by Gian Carlo Minardi way back in 1985, and BAR, a private team set up by British American Tobacco in 2000.

Everyone will remain in the sport, Sauber and BAR selling up to major motor manufacturers BMW and Honda respectively, Minardi selling up to energy drinks giant Red Bull and Jordan re-branding to become a money earner for Alex Shnaider's Midland Group.

But all those changes, be they from privateer to major motor manufacturer or privateer to privateer, have one thing in common. The new owners are not racers, they have not come in to the sport for the thrill of competition, they have come in to gamble on making Formula One work for them.

Midland team boss Colin Kolles openly admits that as Midland has no consumer brand their aim is to make money directly from Formula One. "The strategy is to make it a successful running business," he said. "Every team has to be financially successful but that is the point, we have to generate money."

Red Bull have also committed to making Minardi, now Squadra Toro Rosso, into a self-financing outfit while plugging all their efforts for competitive racing into Red Bull Racing. They want to win, but not really for the thrill of winning, more for the publicity that doing so would attract.

The manufacturers, meanwhile, are all there to compete against each other to help their sales and, because of that, everyone knows it will take just one to decide the massive investment is no longer worthwhile to keep finishing on the lower end of the points table to start a collapse.

Sauber, however, is confident from the meetings in which he has been involved that he leaves the sport, if not in good health due to the huge budgets now involved in running a team, at least heading in the right direction to move forward as a successful manufacturer series.

"The presence of manufacturers in Formula One has two sides," said Sauber. "On one hand the fact that Formula One has such an immense media interest has led to the situation that the big manufacturers want to be around, which is new, and the value of Formula One has grown significantly.

"On the other hand that also implies difficulties because the costs have gone up drastically and I think with those costs, it goes without saying, financially Formula One is on a level today that is not really healthy. That said, I hope and believe Formula One will continue to exist in its current form."

In 1993, when Sauber joined Formula One, there were a total of 35 drivers on the grid racing for 15 teams, including the names of Benetton, Ligier, Lotus, Footwork, Larousse, Tyrrell, Fondmetal and Lola that had all departed before the start of this season.

Many more have come in and gone by the wayside and the fact that Sauber's little outfit, a team from a country where motorsport is banned, has been one of the survivors, is perhaps the greatest thing he will take away from him when he finally walks away.

"It was difficult to survive and on one side I am actually sad to leave, which is absolutely normal because if I was not sad it would be a strange sign for the years I have behind me, but on the other side I am looking forward and happy for the next stage in my life," said Sauber.

"I was never really looking to sell the team, that was not my intention, but when the discussions were going on I started to realise what a fantastic opportunity this was, so the question was not really is this the right time because the opportunity was unique and I really thought I have to go for it.

"I know since 1990 there are 28 teams that have left Formula One, including, for example, Ligier and Prost, that is 28. And we did not. That was difficult, to stay in Formula One, because when we started in 1993, for me, Formula One was on a normal technical level.

"We started immediately well, with 60 employees and about a $20 million (US Dollars) budget. Then Formula One went up extremely on the technical side, and the result was that the budgets exploded. For the independent and small teams that made it extremely difficult to stay in Formula One.

"When I look back I don't see the 13 years in Formula One, I see the whole 36 years in motorsport, and of course that is a very long time. I have been lucky in that I have been able to grow with responsibility, from starting with a small operation and because of this every stage was a highlight at the time."

There have been many highlights in Formula One, many emotional moments, and many achievements that have made every season Sauber has spent leading his little team worth all the hard work, long hours, travelling mileage and sacrifices that he has made in everyday life.

Sauber has always seen his time in the sport as a two-pronged chase for achievement. Success on the track is one thing, success as a businessman another, and ultimately, with his success, he has achieved both. Except, of course, Sauber never won a Grand Prix.

"I am not disappointed by that at all," he said. "Of course, it is our goal to win, that is normal, but with our resources it was impossible to win with our own performance. In Formula One, a podium is like a win for a team like this, and we have had podiums.

"There have been many emotional moments. Formula One is sport and I think the podiums were very emotional, the first one from Heinz-Harald in Monza and maybe the last one, also with Heinz-Harald, in Indianapolis. As for the biggest disappointment, I don't know, really, I don't know.

"Negative things are natural and they are natural in Formula One as they are in normal life, but when I look back over the 13 years in Formula One I look at it as a whole and I don't see any particular negative moments. Overall it is a very positive experience."

One negative moment was the tragic season of 1994, a season that claimed the lives of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna, at Imola, and then saw Sauber directly involved in his own near-tragedy when Karl Wendlinger crashed his Sauber in Monaco just two weeks later.

The promising young Austrian was in a coma for almost three weeks and Sauber recalled: "For sure, it was a bad situation, a bad time, especially during the period when he was in a coma, it was a long time. At the end I was very, very happy because he was okay, and importantly he is still okay."

But that was, in truth, probably Sauber's blackest day. His brightest, he feels, have been those when he has brought new drivers to the sport, like Kimi Raikkonen, for whom he had to fight even the FIA to secure a superlicence, and Felipe Massa, who he has helped Ferrari groom.

Raikkonen has been, he feels, his biggest success. "Kimi is the best of the Sauber drivers," said Sauber. "I am very happy for Kimi and I am also a bit proud about Kimi because it was a hard fight to bring him into Formula One and it was not easy to get his superlicence

"But at the time, when he was with Sauber, he was pretty inexperienced and now he has grown up. In the case of Felipe, I tried it (bringing in a young driver) for a second time, after Kimi, which was obviously a risky thing to do, but looking back I am very happy that it also worked out for Felipe in the end."

From a business perspective, wearing his other hat, Sauber has also enjoyed being a vessel for new manufacturers to enter the sport. "There are two sides," he explained. "On the one hand, Formula One is a sport, obviously, so you have to look at results, and we achieved six podiums.

"These are obviously the highlights, and also fourth place in the constructors, but the other side is the view as an entrepreneur and I am proud by what I have achieved. I brought Mercedes-Benz first back into motorsport and then into Formula One and now, at the end, I helped BMW to go into Formula One as a team."

In Formula One, Sauber has been helped by Malaysian oil giants Petronas, who badge the Ferrari engine, but without manufacturer backing top results would always be rare and Sauber's most successful year was in 2001, when they finished fourth in the Championship behind Ferrari, McLaren and Williams.

Since then, Toyota have arrived, making their debut in 2002, Renault have taken over Benetton, in 2003, and Honda have committed more to the sport by buying up a 45 percent stake in BAR in preparation for their takeover next year. That is a massive influx of manufacturer funding with which Sauber just could not compete.

He, like all the traditional privateer teams, was always looking for a way to link up with a manufacturer. Many names came up along the way, including VW, Audi, Subaru, you name it, but only when Sauber began talks with BMW over an engine supply deal did the opportunity to sell out reveal itself.

"I don't know exactly when we began discussions but I think between two and three years ago Petronas told me you have to look for another engine supplier because it was not anymore in their interests to be an engine supplier," explained Sauber, reflecting on the start of the end.

"I was not under pressure but I started to speak with different engine suppliers about coming in to join us. One of them was BMW, one of them was Toyota, and there was a time when I was closer to a manufacturer other than BMW, but eventually, of course, they were the ones.

"The first discussions were around supplying an engine but in the course of these discussions both parties realised that there may be more that could be done together and this is how it finally happened. The process with the idea to do more than just the engine supply started more than a year ago."

And so Sauber was pinned into a corner. An offer was on the table from BMW to guarantee the security of all his staff and take them all to another level, thanks to the money of a committed manufacturer, and there was no way he could turn it down. With one stipulation: he wanted to stay too.

"I have a contract with BMW as a consultant and I was able to sign a new contract in June with Credit Suisse with the new team for three years, 2006, '07 and '08 so I will, on behalf of BMW, do some duties for Credit Suisse as well," said Sauber.

"I am also working on a new contract with Petronas for BMW, also for the next couple of years, and if I can realise that I will get to work together with Petronas in the future as well. That is one side. The other side is that I have to do some promotional work for BMW in Munich and Switzerland."

So he is still not tempted to go the beach, then? "Well, yes, the beach is an important factor because after 36 years in motorsport I have missed a lot," he smiled. "I like skiing, especially skiing at the end of February when the weather is nice and that was impossible, only on the weekends occasionally.

"I ride motorbikes, but I do not ride them enough. And, of course, I like to have holidays when I can, and for as long as I want, and that has not happened since I have been involved in motorsport. I will only be back in the paddock next year if my duty requires it."

Duty will, probably, require it, but even then it will not be race-in, race-out. Sauber will have a new life, he will have the chance to ride his motorbikes, and you can bet he will make time in his slightly less busy schedule to go skiing, in February, in the nice weather.

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- The Autosport.com Team

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