‘We’ve been pushing AM very hard because we recognise its potential for supply of the wind tunnel testing components and realising our designs in the real world before they go to final manufacture’
Axel Kruse, CEO at Sauber Technologies
Leveraging a Formula 1 team’s engineering expertise and DevOps capabilities for other applications is nothing new. Teams up and down the grid have formed race team partner firms to sell their services to outside organisations for many years. However, this part of Formula 1 has evolved significantly over the past couple of years to accommodate the cost cap regulations and keep the staff’s amassed engineering expertise in house.
The Alfa Romeo Formula 1 team is run by Sauber Motorsport, part of the Sauber Group based in Hinwil, Switzerland. The start of 2022 saw the birth of Sauber Technologies, a new company devoted to bringing Sauber’s engineering innovation and Formula 1 mindset to businesses worldwide. Sauber Technologies incorporates Sauber Engineering and Sauber Aerodynamics, which have both been around for a while, strengthening their capabilities for customers across a broad range of industries.
‘In the past, we had three entities in the company: the motorsport pillar, aerodynamics and engineering,’ explains Axel Kruse, CEO of Sauber Technologies. ‘The engineering, which is the base of the Sauber Technologies group, came from our recognition of us having an excellent product in engineering expertise and being very strong in additive manufacturing (AM).
‘We’ve been pushing AM very hard because we recognise its potential for supply of the wind tunnel testing components and realising our designs in the real world before they go to final manufacture. With the introduction of the budget cap, it made sense to merge the aerodynamic and engineering capabilities as they are hand in hand. So, we created the Sauber Technologies arm of our company.’
There and back
The evolution of the
