Kimi Raikkonen‘s reunion with Sauber is one of the most anticipated storylines ahead of the 2019 season. Last year, Alfa Romeo became the title sponsor of the Sauber F1 team, bringing back an historic name to the sport. Now, it’s taking things to the next level. Alfa Romeo recently announced that the Sauber team is changing its name to Alfa Romeo Racing, becoming a factory-backed effort.
The name might be changing, but ownership and management will stay the same at the team formerly known as Sauber. The team will continue to use Ferrari engines for the 2019 season, and the team will remain headquartered in Switzerland—not Alfa Romeo’s home country of Italy.
The flying Finn, 39, is now leaving Scuderia Ferrari after eight years – spread over two stints – as he heads back to where it all began for him in Formula 1. Kimi Raikkonen finished 10th with Red Bull Sauber Petronas as a starry-eyed 22-year-old rookie back in 2001, carrying only 23 car races under his belt, before moving on to McLaren the following year. And the Iceman already got his first taste of life back at the Swiss team, a little earlier than expected, as the 2007 Formula One world champion drove the car at the end of last year, for a Pirelli tyre test which took place in Abu Dhabi.
The car that Alfa Romeo Racing will field in 2019 will be an Alfa in name only, as none of the components on the car will be supplied by Alfa. It’s an odd thing for a brand whose cars once represented the best engineering in prewar Grand Prix racing and the very early days of F1. Alfa Romeo won the sport’s first two championships with Juan Manuel Fangio driving, but Formula 1 is expensive these days, and this name change provides Alfa Romeo with a way into the top echelon of motorsports.
Alfa Romeo Racing has a world-champion driver for 2019 in Kimi Raikkonen, who gave up his Ferrari seat to Charles Leclerc, Sauber’s star rookie driver last year. The Finn signed a two year contract with what is now Alfa Romeo Racing, and for the 2019 Formula One season he will be racing alongside former Ferrari test driver Antonio Giovinazzi. The two drivers might make the team a mid-pack contender to watch. BudgetBookGP claims the former EUR 50 million Alfa sponsorship will be doubled for 2019 and “allow the team to target 250 million euros of budget per season”, which means that the Swiss-based team starts to compete with the Renault and McLaren budgets.
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