Thirty years ago this week, the Sauber team made its grand prix debut in South Africa and announced a stunning fifth place for JJ Lehto. No new team had made the top six on its debut since Wolf won in Argentina in 1977.
The Formula 1 world was surprised by the form of the newcomer, whose sleek black car carried only a few logos, including one that proclaimed ‘Concept by Mercedes-Benz’.
The fact that the Swiss squad’s first F1 car was designated C12 was a good clue as to why it had come out of the blocks so strongly. Peter Sauber had been manufacturing racing cars for over two decades, and had won the world sportscar championship with works Mercedes support in 1989 and 1990. With a well-equipped factory in Hinwil and a ready-made race team that was capable of running three cars at Le Mans, the move to GP racing for 1993 wasn’t really such a stretch. A few years later Sauber would become the works BMW team, and in 2026 it will morph into Audi. But it should have started as the first full Mercedes F1 entry since 1955, as that curious ‘concept by’ hinted.
At the end of 1989 Mercedes had made its longer-term intentions clear by naming F3 stars Michael Schumacher, Karl
