Sauber Petronas Engineering AG (SPE) was a company owned jointly by the Swiss racing car manufacturer

Sauber Sauber Motorsport AG is a Swiss motorsport engineering company. It was founded in 1970 (as PP Sauber AG) by Peter Sauber, who progressed through hillclimbing and the World Sportscar Championship to reach Formula One in . After operating it ...

(60%) and the Malaysian oil company

Petronas Petroliam Nasional Berhad (National Petroleum Limited), commonly known as Petronas, is a Malaysian petroleum, oil and natural gas, gas company. Established in 1974 and wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia, the corporation is vested w ...

(40%). It was founded in 1996 for the purpose of supplying engines to the Sauber

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship ...

team but at the same time the company began work on the design of production car engines for the Malaysian national car company Proton. The company also helped develop racing motorcycles like Petronas GP1. Former

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a producti ...

and Ferrari engineer Osamu Goto was in charge of the Powertrain Division, including the F1 engine program. The engines were for many years nearly identical to the ones used by Ferrari but were branded Petronas. Sauber licensed nearly every legally licensable part from Ferrari and even had several Ferrari engineers on staff. Many pointed out suspicious similarities between Ferrari and Sauber chassis, but no formal accusations were ever made, even if FIA rules require each team to design their own chassis. The long-term aim of Sauber Petronas was to design and build its own F1 engines for the 1999 season but the programme was abandoned, choosing instead to continue with the Ferrari units. In 1998, Petronas commissioned the Powertrain Division of SPE to design their own first commercial automotive engine, the Petronas E01e engine. After the 2005 season, Sauber was bought by BMW and the co-operation with Ferrari ended.

Formula One engine results

( key; results in bold indicate pole position; results in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

References

{{Sauber Formula One engine manufacturers Petronas Engine manufacturers of Switzerland Sauber Motorsport