The tests carried out on Italy’s Mugello circuit by the Swiss Sauber team, with the 2000 season already over, are useful to team owner Peter Sauber in deciding on the two new drivers to whom he will entrust the new Sauber C20 for the 2001 Formula One World Championship. After having had drivers of the caliber of Jean Alesi and Mika Salo—just to name those from recent seasons—the Swiss outfit prefers to focus on two young talents: the German Nick Heidfeld and the Finnish Kimi Räikkönen.
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| SAUBER C20, Kimi Räikkönen Catalunya-Barcelona, Spanish GP 2001 |
The Finn’s story is rather unusual, as he arrives in Formula 1 with virtually no experience behind the wheel of high-powered single-seaters. In fact, after taking his first steps as a driver in karting, Räikkönen competed in the 1999 British Formula Renault Championship with the Manor team. The following year, he claimed the title with 7 wins out of 10 races, 7 pole positions, and 6 fastest laps, while also racing in the International Formula Renault series, where he took 2 wins, 2 poles, and 2 fastest laps. Out of the 23 single-seater races he had contested up to that point, Kimi had won more than 50%, with 13 victories, immediately attracting Peter Sauber’s attention. Despite these exceptional numbers, due to his very limited experience, the FIA did not grant the Finnish driver a full super licence, instead issuing it on a provisional basis. After the first four races of the championship, the federation was to decide whether to grant the super licence permanently, a decision made in Räikkönen’s favor thanks to the results he achieved right from his debut race in Formula 1, where he finished sixth at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. All this came at the expense of Brazilian Enrique Bernoldi, the team’s third driver the previous season and initially chosen as second driver, also backed by Red Bull, one of the team’s main sponsors, but ultimately dropped in favor of the Finn.
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| SAUBER C20, Nick Heidfeld Monza, Italian GP 2001 |
For the design and construction of the new Sauber C20, Peter Sauber slightly reshuffled his technical staff, promoting German engineer Willy Rampf to Technical Director. After earning a degree in Automotive Engineering from the Munich University of Applied Sciences, Rampf joined Sauber in 1993 as a race engineer, working with various drivers including Frentzen, Fontana, Larini, and Morbidelli. He then moved to BMW, where he oversaw the motorcycle project for the 1998 Dakar Rally, won by rider Richard Sainct, before returning to Sauber in 2000. Leo Ress thus became Chief Engineer, contributing alongside Chief Designer Sergio Rinland to the new car’s project, although the Argentine engineer left for Arrows once the project was completed. Ian Thomson and Seamus Mullarkey retained their respective roles as Chassis Design Chief and Head of Aerodynamics. The new car was an evolution of the previous C19 but was significantly different, especially due to new technical regulations regarding crash tests and the new raised front wing structure, now 5 cm higher. Initially, the wing was supported by two traditional vertical pylons with a curved shape, but from mid-season, Sauber switched to the V-shaped pylons already seen on the Benetton and Jordan cars.
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| SAUBER C20, Kimi Räikkönen Montecarlo, Monaco GP 2001 |
The distinctive twin-keel design, already used by Rinland on the C19, was retained. Whereas most cars used a single keel under the nose to which both lower suspension arms were attached, Rinland employed separate pylons for each suspension support, filling the area between the front and rear mounting points to create two longitudinal keels running under the sides of the nose. The sidepods were slightly lengthened, and at the rear, the previous rear wing design, supported by side endplates extending halfway along the sidepods, was abandoned in favor of a more conventional central support. Under the engine cover, the car still housed the Ferrari Tipo 049 V10 engine used by the Maranello team in 2000, rebadged as the Petronas 01A for sponsorship reasons, while the gearbox remained the Sauber-built longitudinal 7-speed semi-automatic sequential unit already used on the C19. The livery remained unchanged from 2000, with Red Bull blue and Petronas aqua green dominating, but the nose and front wing were now entirely white, carrying the new Credit Suisse logo.
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| SAUBER C20, Kimi Räikkönen Hungaroring, Hungarian GP 2001 |
Despite its relatively low budget, the work done by the aerodynamicists in the wind tunnel and by the chassis team to reduce weight paid off. From the outset, the C20 showed excellent handling characteristics, with performance only slightly below that of the top teams. In fact, the C20 was without a doubt the best car ever to come out of Sauber’s Hinwil workshops, a fact confirmed by the results achieved on track by its two young drivers. On debut in Australia, Heidfeld scored an encouraging fourth place, while rookie Räikkönen finished sixth. After a double retirement in the torrential Malaysian Grand Prix, Heidfeld took third place in Brazil, his first career podium and the team’s best result of the 2001 season. The rest of the year, thanks to the quality of the C20, saw the German collect another five points finishes, while Räikkönen impressed in his first Formula 1 season driving a car far from top-tier, securing two more fourth places and one fifth. By the end of the championship, Sauber had scored an impressive 21 points, finishing fourth in the Constructors’ standings, best of the rest behind the powerhouse teams Ferrari, McLaren-Mercedes, and Williams-BMW.
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