On the grid of F1, Sauber is one of the three teams (with Ferrari and Racing Bulls) whose headquarters are not located in England. The Swiss team, whose base is in Hinwil, has long resisted the call of the United Kingdom and its "Motorsport Valley" which brings together all the main factories of the F1 teams around Oxford and close to the Silverstone circuit. However, in order to best prepare for Audi's commitment from 2026, Sauber has had to face the fact that a base in England is now necessary.
The Swiss team announced on Tuesday the opening of a technical center in the south-east of England. A base which, according to Sauber, will allow the team “to access the greatest expertise and the largest pool of talent in the world in motorsport” and that "will establish a platform to collaborate with top experts and attract local engineering talent for the Audi F1 project." This new British centre will be an integral part of the team's design department.
Sauber in England, the end of an anomaly
The location of the new base has not yet been decided. Sauber-Audi said it "was evaluating potential sites in the 'Motorsport Valley', including Bicester, Silverstone and Milton Keynes ». The opening of this new base, scheduled for summer 2025, does not change anything in the structure of Sauber: the team's headquarters will remain in Hinwil, Switzerland, and the department responsible for the power unit will also remain in Germany, in Neuburg an der Donau. This technical center therefore has a more "prospective" aim in order to attract and welcome the best engineers from the United Kingdom, who were until now put off by the fact of going to Switzerland to work at Sauber.
“We are delighted to establish our UK technical centre to complement our key sites in Hinwil and Neuburg an der Donau, which will continue to drive our core engineering activities and see the strongest growth in terms of headcount, said Mattia Binotto, COO and Technical Director of Sauber Motorsport. Expanding into the UK allows us to remain close to one of the most dynamic motorsport ecosystems in the world. Our aim is to create a strong and collaborative network between Hinwil, Neuburg and the UK, to drive innovation and performance.”
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