At the end of the 1998 season, despite retaining experienced French driver Jean Alesi, Peter Sauber's team had to endure the departure of British driver Johnny Herbert, who moved to Stewart after three seasons with the Swiss outfit as their lead driver. However, Sauber found fresh financial support by signing Brazilian driver Pedro-Paulo Diniz, thanks to Parmalat, Diniz's long-time personal sponsor. With the additional budget brought in by the Brazilian driver, the Swiss team was able to embark on an important evolution of their single-seater, creating a new car for the 1999 Championship: the Sauber C18.
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| SAUBER C18, Jean Alesi Hungaroring, Hungarian GP 1999 |
Despite the roughly 12 million dollars of extra funding, 5 million saved from Herbert's salary and 7 million brought in by Diniz, from its official presentation at the Tinguely Museum in Basel, Switzerland, the new C18 appeared to be nothing more than a slight evolution of the underperforming C17 from the previous season. The small technical staff, led by Technical Director Leo Ress, underwent only minor changes compared to 1998. Ian Thomson remained in charge of chassis design, while aerodynamicists Rene Hilrost and Mike Jennings were replaced by Seamus Mullarkey, who arrived from Jordan. The new chassis featured revised front suspension with double wishbones in a push-rod configuration, a concept introduced the previous year by McLaren, though it failed to deliver the desired results on the Sauber cars.
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| SAUBER C18, Pedro-Paulo Diniz Hungaroring, Hungarian GP 1999 |
The limited aerodynamic improvements were mostly focused on the new sidepods, front wing, and deflectors, initially large and extended but gradually slimmed down as the season progressed due to minimal aerodynamic benefits. The most noticeable difference compared to the previous car appeared on the top of the sidepods, where the rear wing was connected to the bodywork by two supports anchored to the center of the sidepods, a solution many teams had already adopted between 1995 and 1997. Completely new were also the small deflectors placed in front of the rear tires, which, from this season onwards, were Bridgestone on Sauber's cars following Goodyear's withdrawal from Formula 1.
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| SAUBER C18, Jean Alesi Hungaroring, Hungarian GP 1999 |
An interesting rear-wing solution was introduced at the start of the season on the C18. During pre-season testing in mid-February, Alesi's car achieved the highest top speed at the Barcelona circuit, ahead of both McLaren and Jordan. However, after the opening race of the season in Australia, where both C18s retired, technical director Leo Ress confirmed that his cars were using a flexible rear wing that reduced its angle of attack as speed increased. Before the next Grand Prix in Brazil, the FIA launched an investigation and issued new regulations to standardize wing flexibility starting from that race, effectively banning Ress's concept. The engine used by Sauber in 1999 was again the Ferrari V10, version 047, the same used by Ferrari’s cars the previous season, rebranded as the Petronas SPE03A under the Malaysian sponsor's naming rights, which fully financed the engine leasing deal. Paired with the Italian V10, capable of producing 700 hp at 17,000 rpm, was Sauber's new seven-speed longitudinal semi-automatic gearbox, the team's first seven-speed transmission. However, it proved inadequate to withstand the Ferrari V10's power, causing most of Sauber's retirements throughout the season. The C18 retained a livery similar to that of the previous season, with a shiny two-tone blue accented by the red of energy drink producer Red Bull and the aqua green of Malaysian oil company Petronas.
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| SAUBER C18, Pedro-Paulo Diniz Hungaroring, Hungarian GP 1999 |
The 1999 World Championship turned into a real ordeal for Peter Sauber's cars, with only 12 race finishes and 24 retirements, some truly baffling, like Alesi running out of fuel on two separate occasions, reminiscent of the turbo engine era of the 1980s when it was fairly common to see cars stop due to empty tanks. The 1999 season ended with only five points-scoring finishes, all sixth places, leaving the Sauber team with a meager tally of 5 points and eighth place in the Constructors' Championship, marking their worst season to date.
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