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 un ...
(60%) and the Malaysian oil company
Petronas
Petroliam Nasional Berhad (National Petroleum Limited), commonly known as Petronas, is a Malaysian oil and gas company. Established in 1974 and wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia, the corporation is vested with all oil and gas reso ...
(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
A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' elementary charge. Its mass is slightly less than that of a neutron and 1,836 times the mass of an electron (the proton–electron mass ...
.
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 product ...
and
Ferrari
Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...
engineer
Osamu Goto
is a masculine Japanese given name.
Possible writings
Osamu can be written using different kanji characters and can mean:
*治 "reign"
*修 "discipline"
*理 "logic"
*収 "obtain"
*紀 "chronicle"
*統 "rule"
The name can also be written in hir ...
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
A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit).
A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...
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
FIA is the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (English: International Automobile Federation), the world's governing body for all forms of motor sport where four or more wheels are used.
Fia or FIA may also refer to: People
* Fia Backst ...
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
Key or The Key may refer to:
Common meanings
* Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm
* Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock
* Key (map ...
; 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