Beat Zehnder no longer at Audi: memories of more than 600 Grands Prix

He was regarded as one of Formula 1’s finest team managers, with unrivalled expertise: Beat Zehnder. On 30 October, Audi announced that the Swiss national would be leaving the company at the end of December 2026.

Beat Zehnder joined Sauber in Hinwil as a mechanic in 1988, when the team was still competing in the World Sportscar Championship, and soon became an indispensable member of the Swiss racing team.

When Peter Sauber took the bold decision in 1993 to enter Formula 1 (“A sensible step into madness”, as he always called it), Beat was entrusted with managing logistics.

Beat’s role evolved over time, and he eventually became team manager, a position that was later redefined as sporting director.

Beat became the only member of the Sauber team to have been present at more than 600 of the team’s race weekends; no other member of any current F1 team anywhere in the pit lane has attended a longer, uninterrupted run of Grand Prix weekends. World record.

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Beat’s journey began long before the first official race weekend. In 1992, Beat attended ten Grand Prix weekends as an observer (not included in the total of 600) to learn as much as possible and ensure that the team was fully prepared for its debut at Kyalami in March 1993.

Sauber in Formula 1: A stunning debut in South Africa

“It was a very exciting time, especially because of the size of the team,” recalls the Zurich native. “We travelled to the first race at Kyalami with 27 people, including the drivers and Peter Sauber.”

“We had three race cars, because back then you could still switch between cars. Of course, we had a lot on our plate, as we were a very small team.”

To the surprise of their rivals, JJ Lehto and Karl Wendlinger qualified in impressive 6th and 10th places. Thanks to a high number of retirements during the race, both drivers were able to steadily move up the field and achieve a strong result on Sauber’s F1 debut.

Beat continued: “We had a realistic chance of finishing on the podium with Karl, but unfortunately we had an electronic fault in his car. JJ finished fifth. I remember that Gerhard Berger, who was with Ferrari at the time, came over several times to take a look at our car.”

Dark days in 1994: Ratzenberger, Senna, Wendlinger

The 1994 season was a massive challenge not only for Formula 1 but also for the Sauber team. The tragic Imola weekend, with the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger, cast a long shadow over the sport.

Just two weeks later, Karl Wendlinger suffered a serious crash in Monaco – a dark moment in the team’s history and a personal low point for Beat Zehnder, who began to question his own future in the sport.

“That was a wake-up call for Formula 1, particularly when it came to safety. We were then the first team to fit raised cockpit side walls; we’d already had them on the car in Barcelona.”

Fortunately, Karl was able to return to racing the following year, and in response to safety concerns, the FIA introduced higher cockpit walls in subsequent regulations.

Sauber: First podium finish with Heinz-Harald Frentzen

In the 1995 season, Red Bull, Petronas and Ford emerged as key partners for the team. Heinz-Harald Frentzen secured Sauber’s first podium finish with a third place at Monza, and in 1996 Johnny Herbert repeated this success with a hard-fought third place at the eventful Monaco Grand Prix.

In 1997, the team switched to Ferrari engines – the start of a long-standing partnership – and continued to achieve solid results. However, it proved difficult to make significant progress compared with the established frontrunners.

Sauber with exceptional Formula 1 talent Kimi Räikkönen

Beat Zehnder: “As a private team – a really small one, without the backing of a car manufacturer – it was difficult for us, because Formula 1 was already very expensive back then.”

Beat always maintained close contact with the Sauber drivers and developed a particularly close bond with the Finn Kimi Räikkönen when the young Finn joined the team in 2001.

Sauber recognised the talent of the pale-faced Northerner early on, whilst the competition publicly questioned whether a driver with just 23 race starts under his belt should even be competing in Formula 1.

Beat: “Kimi scored his first World Championship point in Melbourne; that was something very special. He initially finished seventh, and then we lodged a protest against Oliver Panis for overtaking under yellow flags. Back then, there was no video review, so it took the FIA quite a long time to establish that Panis had indeed overtaken under yellow flags.”

“When I rang Kimi, he was already at the hotel, and I said: ‘Mate, congratulations on your very first race, your very first World Championship point – you’ve finished sixth!’ In typical Kimi fashion, he said: ‘But there are still five ahead of me!’”

It is not without a certain irony that it was none other than the man who had vociferously questioned Kimi’s abilities – McLaren team principal Ron Dennis – who lured Räikkönen to England after a year with Sauber.

Sauber’s BMW era in Formula 1

The team’s role as an independent company changed in 2006 with the start of the BMW era. Peter Sauber handed over the reins to the new team principal, Mario Theissen.

“The deal was announced in June 2005,” recalls Beat. “There wasn’t much time left, as we were already working on the car for the following year. The infrastructure had to be completely overhauled. We had a lot of support from Mario, and we were given everything we needed. It was more complicated than the way we used to work.”

“The first BMW season wasn’t going very well until halfway through, and then Nick Heidfeld finished on the podium in Hungary. The following year, everything ran more smoothly. Although we only had two podium finishes – Nick came second for the first time in Canada – he and Robert Kubica finished fourth or fifth in almost every race. We were on the right track in 2007, and even more so in 2008.”

That season, Robert Kubica secured the team’s first victory in Montreal, exactly one year after the Polish driver’s serious accident on the same circuit.

The 2009 season proved to be a difficult one, partly due to the complexity of the new KERS technology.

Shock for Sauber: BMW suddenly pulls out of Formula 1

As the year drew to a close, a global financial crisis led to BMW’s withdrawal from Formula 1, and the team returned to the hands of its founder, Peter Sauber. The team founder made a significant financial commitment to save the team, a fact Beat acknowledges with gratitude.

Zehnder: “Of course, with BMW we had massively increased the number of staff. We had restructured the company; we had made it bigger. There was a completely new building, which was almost as big as the old one. A great deal was invested during the four years that BMW was involved.”

“And then BMW was suddenly gone. That meant we had to make 250 staff redundant and do the absolute minimum to keep the team running.”

The team made a strong comeback in 2012, securing four podium finishes shared between Sergio Pérez and Kamui Kobayashi. At the end of the season, Peter Sauber handed over the role of team principal to Monisha Kaltenborn – a woman as team principal, something that had never happened before in the top flight.

The team came under considerable financial pressure, a situation that didn’t just affect Sauber, as other teams were also struggling at the time.

Beat: “I have great respect for the way Monisha fought for the company. In 2014, Peter wanted to close the company on more than one occasion. Monisha was a tremendous fighter, and without her I’m pretty sure we might not have been around by mid-2014 or early 2015.”

Sauber: A fight for survival is rewarded

This will to survive was rewarded in the summer of 2016, when the team received a crucial investment from its new owners, Longbow Finance. The following year, Frédéric Vasseur replaced Kaltenborn as team principal. The experienced Frenchman brought new momentum and energy to the team.

Beat: “The change was very positive. It takes a lot to rattle Fred; he’s a very funny, open and approachable person. The challenge lay not only in taking over a Formula 1 team, but also in the fact that, in the period after Peter had bought the company back, we hadn’t kept our facilities, IT infrastructure and so on up to scratch.”

“Then you have a new owner and a new team principal, and you realise there’s much more to do than just running an F1 team. We had to do lots of things we hadn’t done during the years of our financial difficulties. Fred has done a brilliant job.”

Sauber’s partnership with Alfa Romeo before the Audi era

Before taking on a new role at Ferrari, Fred steadied the ship, forged a successful partnership with Alfa Romeo, brought Kimi Räikkönen back, signed Valtteri Bottas – a ten-time Grand Prix winner – after Räikkönen had retired, and set the team on the path that led to its groundbreaking takeover by Audi in 2022.

Beat has played a crucial role in preparing the team for the new era with Audi, which began in 2026.

Zehnder continues: “It’s been an intense period. We’ve massively increased our workforce and are restructuring our facilities. There’s a lot going on. There’s the current season, development for next season, and then building a completely new team with a completely new infrastructure.”

“When you double the number of staff – and we’ve almost managed to do that over the last two and a half years – it’s not just about hiring people, but about integrating them seamlessly.”

Audi evidently believes that this role has now been fulfilled, and Zehnder is stepping down.

Formula 1 is losing a man who stood by numerous drivers with brotherly or fatherly affection, a walking encyclopaedia of F1 and the regulations, and always up for a joke.

Formula 1 without Beat Zehnder is a poorer Formula 1.