It’s the end of an era, as Formula 1 waves goodbye to the Sauber name which has been ever-present since Peter Sauber brought his racing team to the world championship in 1993, after a successful foray in the World Sportscar Championship with Mercedes power. Aside from a four-year period between 2006 and 2009, when the team was sold to BMW, Sauber has raced as a proud F1 independent. Even during that time, the German manufacturer opted to keep the Swiss name and race as BMW Sauber, with then boss Mario Theissen saying “it reflects the team’s make-up – run by BMW but with a core of 300 Sauber employees”. Peter Sauber treated the team like family. It’s why he took enormous personal risk when he bought the team back from BMW, when the manufacturer opted to quit, to save the team and secure the futures of the hundreds of staff who had dedicated their life to the operation.

Kimi Raikkonen scored a point on his debut in 2001, in a season when Sauber finished fourth in the constructors' championship

It has been the people that have given Sauber their staying power – only Ferrari, McLaren, Williams and Lotus have started more Grands Prix in F1’s history. Their loyalty, through even the most depressing times such as when their salaries weren’t being paid, has been unwavering. It has yielded some tremendous highs – such as their only victory (when running as BMW Sauber) through Robert Kubica in the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix and a staggering fourth place in the constructors’ championship in 2001, which incidentally was the same season Sauber gave a certain Kimi Raikkonen a shock debut despite having only clocked up a meagre 23 single-seater races. But there have also been lows. In 2014, they failed to score a single point for the first and only time in their history. Then in 2016, financial difficulties left them on the brink of extinction, only for Sauber to sell up to Longbow Finance in a deal that he said would “secure the team’s future”.

5 moments of Robert Kubica brilliance - First victory