The history of Formula 1 teams can go back a few years or decades, as in the case of Sauber , a group that was born from the hand of Peter Sauber in the 1993 season and has managed to stay in the top category of the motorsport with the same headquarters in Hinwil.
It currently competes under the Alfa Romeo name after they reached an agreement starting in 2018, but it could have been very different if another contract had been signed at the beginning of the millennium.
The year was 2001, and at that time, Red Bull was one of the great sponsors of the Swiss team. In that course they played the season with the color blue and a logo of energy drinks on the back, in addition to having one of the young promises of Formula 1, a certain Kimi Raikkonen.
However, the company that now dominates the Grand Circus was hoping to gain control of Sauber, as revealed by one of the team’s executives, Beat Zender , on the category’s official podcast, Beyond the Grid .
“In those years, Red Bull insisted that we choose its driver, Enrique Bernoldi , who competed in Formula 3000 in 2000,” explained the manager of the Swiss team. “Peter Sauber asked me to take a closer look at that driver, and to be honest, I’ve seen every race he’s been in.
“I wanted to get into Formula 1 without having won anything in a lower category, so we hired Kimi Raikkonen instead, and that’s why we didn’t become a team with the name Red Bull Racing, I’m sure that was the original plan,” Zender explained.
Despite the fact that the Finn later became a star in the category and was world champion in 2007, Enrique Bernoldi also came to Formula 1, and Arrows had his services for the 2001 and 2002 campaigns for a total of 28 races.
However, the Brazilian was never the promise that Red Bull expected, as his best performance only saw him finish eighth at the German Grand Prix in his debut year.
Meanwhile, Red Bull fared a little better when it finally entered the Formula 1 world championship, since, after buying Jaguar to compete as its own team in 2005 , it has won four constructors’ titles and five drivers’ titles, and they are the fifth in history with the most victories and sixth in terms of championships, with a total of nine.
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