Sauber present C32 from Switzerland - The busy F1 launch period continues with Sauber's 2013 car

Published 2 February 2013 by Christine

It's time for another live launch on Sidepodcast, as Sauber very kindly unveil their 2013 car on a Saturday morning. With two new drivers in the shape of Nico Hülkenberg and Esteban Gutiérrez, it's all change at Sauber and it will be intriguing to see how the boys look in their new gear, and how the car looks in its 2013 evolution.

So far, we've seen a split in the decision whether to run with the modesty panel or not, and whilst the machinery we are seeing in the launches may not be what makes it to the track in testing or at the first race, it's still a good indication of how the team's feel about the stepped nose. Which way will Sauber go?

Follow the Factbyte Factbox for updates as we watch the C32 unveiled live.

As it happened: Sauber F1 Team 2013 launch

Event Highlights

New drivers Esteban Gutiérrez and Nico Hülkenberg pull the covers off the car
The C32 is unveiled with new colour scheme, more gray and less white
There are significant changes to the bodywork, with thinner sidepods and a stepped nose compromise
Monisha Kaltenborn doesn't have a specific target, just to "continue on our upward curve"

10:10
Hello there, another day another team launch! This time it's Sauber's turn to whip off the covers of their 2013 car. Are you ready?
10:17
Tweet from @RFrijns: Today is the big day!! Car launch @OfficialSF1Team !! Really looking forward to see this beauty! Team did a awesome job!!
10:20
Sauber are yet another team that are launching their car live, with the handy tool known as YouTube. You can follow along on the site or on YouTube itself: http://www.sauberf1team.com/ or http://www.youtube.com/sauberf1team
10:49
Just about ten minutes to go now before the launch of the car. There's no flurry of leaked pictures, so either Sauber are good at this, or no one is awake yet.
10:50
The video appears to have gone live, although still showing the same placeholder screen for now.
10:58
Ah, the video woke up for a moment there, pretty shots of Hinwil. Actually, not so pretty, mostly road signs and office buildings.
11:00
A brief countdown, and the launch is go!
11:01
There's the car, under covers, and our presenter with Britney-style mic.
11:01
Monisha is welcomed to the stage, "Mrs Kaltenborn."
11:02
Monisha: "I'm very excited but also a little tense. A launch like this, then the roll out is an exciting moment. We're just days away from when the new car will be hitting the track, we compare ourselves for the first time to our competitors, it's very exciting."
11:03
More from Monisha: "The aim is very clear, we want to keep improving ourselves. The key factor of this is the car. The C32 is based on its predecessor, it had its strengths and a few weaknesses, the engineers focused on building the strengths and eliminating the weaknesses."
11:03
11:03
Peter Sauber watches on proudly from the audience.
11:04
Monisha is thanking the sponsors/partners, and saying that in this economic climate, you just can't take these partnerships for granted.
11:05
A brief word from Monisha about each of the drivers, just before they take to the stage. Esteban and Nico removing their caps and standing by the car.
11:05
They take the covers off, to very dramatic music!
11:06
Much darker livery, very sleek and grey, with a few red and white stripes. It's nice!
11:06
Nico: "The colour scheme has changed a bit, it looks great, now I'm curious to take it out and see how fast it is."
11:07
Esteban: "As Nico said, it's very exciting to see the car. It's very innovative, I'm looking forward to take it on track, first in the test and then to race it."
11:07
The new Sauber!
11:08
Nico on getting used to a new car: "It depends how well testing goes, depends on how much experience you've got. It's my third year in Formula One, I've got a few kilometres on my shoulders. Once you get through winter testing, with a good programme behind you, by the time you get to Melbourne you should be in the sweet spot."
11:09
Now a video of the boys filming in the factory, messing about, laughing, racing some ride along plastic buggies.
11:10
A clip of the drivers, and they are HIGH FIVING ON A SEGWAY. They deserve to win the championship for that alone.
11:11
Their overalls have also had more grey added, it's a nice colour scheme.
11:12
Esteban: "I think the most important challenge in F1 is to adapt to the whole psychological atmosphere, you have the media around, there's a certain adaptation to the car. The challenge I want to achieve is to be consistent at a high competitive level. This is what I'm looking for."
11:13
Nico looks forward to 2013.
11:13
The all new driver line-up is applauded as they leave the stage.
11:16
Matt Morris, Chief Designer: "Checo had quite a bad accident in Monaco. When we got the car back and saw the sidepods all squashed in, we wondered if we could do that for real. It's obviously aero driven, it's been a huge challenge for us, structure wise and packaging wise... and ensuring we still pass all the mandatory FIA tests."
11:19
The stream seems to have come to an odd end - the presenter signed off, then they brought Morris to the stage, but now it has faded to black.
11:19
Still, a good launch, what we saw of it. New livery, interesting car design, quite different, and a brand new driver line-up. It really is all change at Sauber.
11:19
We'll keep the reactions, quotes and pictures coming so do keep checking back.
11:25
Tweet from @F1Racing_mag: "It's an aggressive-looking car and we're confident it will be aggressive on track," says Morris.
11:26
Monisha doesn't want to make any predictions: "We’re not saying we want to finish in this or that position in the standings, as ultimately other factors will also come into play that are outside our control. What we can be clear about, however, is that we want to continue on our upward curve."
11:30
Esteban on his winter preparations: "Apart from all my training back home, I also had the chance to spend very good days in Austria in December and January concentrating on my physical preparation, mainly based on winter sports like CrossCountry skiing, climbing through the snow, etc."
11:34
Tweet from @alanbaldwinf1: Well, I think the C32 looked pretty neat. Aggressive, smart grey paint job and nice solution to the nose. Hope it's quick.
12:51
13:36
More from Monisha on her expectations from the car: "What I can say is that we’re well prepared, that we’ve got the new car finished in good time and that we’ve met the performance targets we set ourselves internally. That puts us in a confident frame of mind. But we’ll only really find out what it all amounts to at the first race of the season in Melbourne."
13:36
13:37
Esteban is anticipating the next few months of adjustment: "In the beginning the most important task is to solve all the car’s reliability issues so we can put in a lot of laps in the tests. Then, of course, another important factor is to get to know the car in race and qualifying conditions, which mainly comes with experience during the first races."
15:44
The launch summed up in 60 seconds: https://sidepodcast.com/news/sauber-launch-c32-hinwil-factory