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Switzerland, the nation that banned motor racing for 60 years, will on Sunday witness its solely Formula One staff becoming a member of an elite membership of the game’s grandee outfits. The modest Swiss Sauber staff will begin its landmark 500th race on the Turkish Grand Prix – a feat achieved by solely three different groups, led by Ferrari. The Hinwil-based staff, based by Peter Sauber as a sportscar outfit, entered F1 in 1993 and has raced since beneath numerous identities together with BMW Sauber and, extra lately, Alfa Romeo.
This weekend on the Istanbul Park Circuit, Kimi Raikkonen, himself the person record-holder for many F1 race entries – he begins his 326th on Sunday – will permit himself a smile of delight.
He is again racing with the staff that gave him his debut in 2001, after spells with McLaren, Ferrari and Lotus, and fills with pleasure on the survival and achievements of the Swiss privateer staff.
“The team is quite a bit bigger than when I started in F1 with them,” the 2007 world champion, now 41, recalled.
“It’s a proper team. We have all the tools, we have been building cars. The gearbox and engine come from Ferrari, but apart from that we do everything.”
In his first season, Sauber completed fourth within the constructors’ championship, their greatest consequence. Since then, regardless of being offered to BMW and purchased again, the Sauber model has continued.
“Money is always an issue with the small teams, but that’s how it is,” stated Raikkonnen.
“It’s a great number – 500 – that the team are achieving and I think only three others have done more Grands Prix.
“So, I feel for a non-public staff they have been right here a very long time, surviving some actually tough occasions and, hopefully, we will make them go increased up within the coming years.”
Ferrari, McLaren and Williams are the trio of rival teams to have entered more races. They have also won the most teams’ titles.
By contrast, Sauber have only one win to show for their longevity and that came with Robert Kubica at the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix when BMW were in control.
Raikkonen’s Italian team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi, a Ferrari protégé in his third season, similarly oozes affection for the unsung Swiss team that has nurtured and developed many young drivers, including current Ferrari star Charles Leclerc.
“It’s an amazing achievement, a small staff like Sauber doing 500 Grands Prix is wonderful,” he said. “I’m proud even when I’m a small a part of this report, as a result of for me it is an essential staff.
“I did my debut with them back in 2017, my first full season with them, and now my third season with them.”
Although the staff was taken over by Swiss funding group Longbow Finance, when it was in monetary peril in 2016, it has retained its dwelling and employees in Hinwil – and its Swiss identification.
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“I’m proud to be part of this family,” stated Giovinazzi. “To be a small team, they achieve great results and they have a great record like this one.”
Switzerland banned motor racing after the 1955 Le Mans 24-Hours tragedy when 83 spectators have been killed after a automobile crashed into the gang.
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