The Sauber C12 was the first F1 car for the Sauber team. With an infrastructure located in Switzerland, they had the personnel available and for the past seven years the Mercedes Benz support. Although Harvey Posthlethwaite and Steve Nichols were initially involved in the design, it was, after the endurance racing Saubers, again a Leo Ress neatly designed car in the end. The suspension configuration was a double wishbone pushrod with twinspring/dampers at the front and the rear. Tyres used were goodyear. And the gearbox was a Sauber 6 speed semi-automatic longitudinal Xtrac.
The F1 regulations for 1993 were strict: 46 practice sessions, 24 qualifying laps in the two days prior to a GP. The Sauber team tested the car with Karl Wendlinger in the last 6 months of 1992. So they were well advanced over all other teams; they chose not to use an active suspension set-up. However, it was only in the last four weeks prior to their debut GP that the decided to make a new gearbox design. The Illmor V10 started the season, but was rebadged Sauber V10 at the end of the European races. The only visible link on this black F1 car to Mercedes Benz was the logo : “concept by Mercedes Benz”. The second driver was JJ Letho. For the history, the team had a female team manager: Carmen Ziegler.
A first year in F1 - 1993 with Sauber C12
The C12 made his debut in the South African GP at Kyalami. Like the Walter Wolf car of Jody Scheckter, Letho scored a P06 in qualifying and ended fifth in the race, scoring points in the first ever F1 race. In Brazil both Sauber’s had to stop the race due to technical problems and in the European GP, there were driver’s issues. In Imola, Lehto was fourth. After the engine problems in Barcelona, both drivers collided together in the Monaco GP when JJ Lehto tried to overtake his teammate. In Canada, it was Karl Wendlinger’s turn to score 1 point and Lehto was on P07. He scored yet another point in Hungary after two DNF and one P09. In Monza with the new engine and in Portugal Wendlinger ended P04 and P05. Lehto had also a stronger late season, unfortunately always just out of the points. In the last race in Australia, both cars were on a DNF, both involved in accidents.
Sauber had in total 12 points in the constructors championship, which was not bad for a first year.
Building on - Sauber C13
The 1994 season started rather bad. The ‘Broker Magazin’ sponsorship failed during the first races, so budget was low from the start. Mercedes Benz was not happy to fund the Swiss team, but they were rescued by SHM, the Swiss concern that owned Omega and Tissot. So these were the stickers on the car for the second half of the season.
Leo Ress had designed a new machine, an evolutionary version of the 1993 car. It had a carbon fibre monocoque from Dave Price in the UK with an integrated 220 L fuel cell. The car featured the high nose, slightly taller water radiators and an airbox raised by 20 mm to accommodate Wendlinger There was still no active suspension, but different set-ups were tested in the winter. In the wind tunnel at the Swiss Aerospace at Emmen(CH), they developed the rear diffuser. The Illmor V10 was now definitively rebadged as Mercedes engine. The Brixworth-built Mercedes-Benz 2175B V10 engine was tailor-made to suit the Sauber C13 and – in keeping with Mercedes tradition – broke the mould in its sole use of pneumatic valves as opposed to the more traditional spring valves.
The first races went quit well with a P06 for Karl Wendlinger in Brazil, a P05 for Heinz-Herald Frentzen in the Pacific GP and a P04 for Wendlinger again at Imola, with Frentzen P07.
Then, during the qualifications for the Monaco GP, Wendlinger had a mayor accident at the S-curve after the tunnel. The doctors put him in an induced coma for three weeks to get him stabilized again. Team Sauber withdrew from the GP and entered only one car in the next round in Spain, which ended in a DNF.
From the Canadian GP onwards, Frentzen got a new teammate: Andrea de Cesaris. Both Saubers had a new V10 engine with pneumatic valves. After a DNF, both drivers finished the race in Magny-Cours (France) with Frentzen fourth and De Cesaris sixth. After a P08 for Frentzen in England, both cars could not finish in the next five races. Both cars were out on a first lap accident in Hockenheim, technical issues in Monza and crashes for De Cesaris at the Hungaroring, Spa (sticking throttle) and Estoril. It was only in the European GP (Jerez) and in Japan again that Frentzen scored yet two other points with two P06. In the last race in Australia, both cars finished but out of the points with JJ Letho replacing De Cesaris.
The Sauber team ended on P08 in the constructors championship, just 1 point behind Tyrrell and Ligier. This was about the same result as in 1993. HH Frentzen scored 7 points, de Cesaris 4 points.
