Next year, Sauber will be celebrating its half-century. Fifty years at the pinnacle of motorsport, competing in endurance until the early 1990s and in Formula one, where it is contesting its 27th season this year. Now partnered with Alfa Romeo and headed by Frenchman Frédéric Vasseur, the outfit entered a new era when its founder decided to step down in 2016. While Peter Sauber is no longer at the helm, his spirit and his passion still guide the team, which has braved many a storm on the road to success. The history of the Sauber team is closely tied to one manufacturer, one race and one particular day. On 11 June 1989, when the Swiss team was first over the finish line at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, it marked Mercedes’ motorsports revival after 25 years obscured by the memory of the accident at Le Mans in 1955. The seminal victory paved the way for the German firm’s spectacular ascension in the realm of motor racing and established Sauber as a major player in the field. Peter Sauber has some very special memories of that win.

“Whenever I look back, I always see that win at Le Mans,”, he says when LeMans.org contacted him.  “It’s no doubt the highlight of the team’s existence. We were in charge of the Mercedes programme and that year, we won the Drivers and Manufacturers titles in Endurance, but nothing could compare to the Le Mans win. That was the most important race of my career!”

A race that the Hinwil-based team were actually approaching as ‘practice’ for the 1990 event where they really intended to launch their attack!

“We dominated the championship that year but Le Mans has always had its own agenda. Its own rules. At Mercedes, everyone was well aware of that and no one put any pressure on us to make it first past the post. The race was supposed to be part of our preparations for the future, not a race to victory!”

The 20th anniversary of the victory was proudly celebrated in 2009. “The team counted 87 people in 1989 and 74 of them came to the celebrations,”  the Swiss team leader remembers, clearly moved. “Most of the drivers were there too. I would have liked to have got everyone together for the 30th anniversary too, but it’s a bit more difficult now. Some of them have sadly passed away since.”

Sauber will not be at Le Mans on Sunday 16 June, but he will have a thought for the #63 C9 prototype driven by Manuel Reuter, Stanley Dickens and Jochen Mass, which revived the Silver Arrows livery and changed the lives of the Sauber team. He will also be reminiscing about the extraordinary race that is the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which he has always been very fond of. “It’s a love/hate thing,” he sums up. “I think it’s the same for every team that tackles the 24 Hours!”

PHOTO (Wolfgang Wilhelm for Daimler AG): LE MANS (SARTHE, FRANCE), CIRCUIT DES 24 HEURES DU MANS, 1989. The Sauber-Mercedes had already clocked the best times at qualifying for the 1989 race, placing two of its three C9s on the front row. However, after 24 hours of racing, it was the third car (the #63 driven by Mass, Reuter and Dickens), which had set off from 11th place, that was first past the chequered flag!