Sauber reveals red logo and likely new name

Sauber has revealed a red logo and name – Sauber Motorsport – that will surely soon replace the Swiss team’s current official ‘BMW Sauber F1 Team’ title.

The new logo – the once-familiar ‘S’ logo in a red-coloured box and ‘Sauber Motorsport’ in a grey font – was included for the first time at the header of the team’s media preview of the season opening Bahrain grand prix.

In the wake of former owner BMW’s departure from the sport, Sauber has retained the ‘BMW’ in the name in order to fully benefit from the commercial rewards of the team’s sixth place in the 2009 world championship.

Insiders had expected to see a new name listed in the final entry list for the 2010 season, but last week the FIA confirmed that Sauber will be known as ‘BMW Sauber Ferrari’.

Currently on the official bmw-sauber.com website, there remains only a message informing that the German carmaker has turned “its hand to other motorsport projects from 2010”.

After the BMW departure and the failure of the Qadbak takeover, founder Peter Sauber stepped in and this year is once again running the team as a privateer.

“There is only one reason why I did it,” the 66-year-old told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

“If I hadn’t, the company would now be dead and the staff would have been dismissed,” Sauber added.

He said the objective for 2010 is to maintain sixth place in the constructors’ championship.

“We have reduced our budget heavily so it would be good if we could just keep our level,” said Sauber.

The C29 often seemed quick in the February tests, but Spanish driver Pedro de la Rosa does not think Sauber can emulate Brawn and emerge from a carmaker withdrawal to be a championship contender.

“The rules this time are well known and now exploited 100 per cent by all the teams, so there will be no ‘Brawn 2’,” the 39-year-old former McLaren test driver told Diario Sport.

© RIF|GMM