C-Ing Is Believing the Sauber-Mercedes C9 Sauber-Mercedes C9
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C-ing is Believing The Sauber-Mercedes C9 Sauber-Mercedes C9 he importance of the Sauber C9 in the The engine was said to have been developed motorsport history of Mercedes cannot by renowned Swiss tuner Heini Mader, but Tbe underestimated. It was the first car of long-time Sauber team manager Max Welti the modern era to run in the marque’s famous describes this as a “smokescreen” to hide silver livery, it was the first Merc to win a world Mercedes’ true ambitions. The company wanted championship title for more than 30 years, to be in control of an engine that bore its and it was a Le Mans 24 Hours winner to boot. badges and had one eye on bigger things. Welti Every successful Mercedes racing programme suspects that no more than one or two engines since owes a debt of gratitude to the successes ever went to Mader’s workshops. of the C9 Group C car. The Mercedes-engined Sauber C8 didn’t The Swiss Sauber team had laid the actually race in 1985. An accident on what foundations of Mercedes’ factory return to should have been car’s debut at Le Mans led to motorsport in 1988, a twin-pronged attack on the team’s withdrawal from the event. The C8 the World Sports-Prototype Championship and would not reappear that year. the DTM touring car series in Germany. Its Sauber regrouped for a partial world Group C cars, first the C8 and then the C9, had championship campaign with a new car, the been powered by the German manufacturer’s C9, in 1987. It was a logical development of its M117 twin-turbo V8 since 1985, though the predecessor and was built around the same relationship stretched back further. aluminium monocoque chassis, which was Sauber had forged a links with Mercedes at largely unchanged from the BMW-engined the start of the decade when developing its first C7 of 1984. Sauber’s maiden season with Group C design, the C6. It was looking for a Mercedes power included a fortuitous victory windtunnel in which to hone the aerodynamics for sportscar legend Henri Pescarolo and of the car and ended up knocking on Mercedes’ Mike Thackwell in a wet, two-part race at the door. Nurubrgring. What team owner Peter Sauber didn’t know at The team’s WSPC campaign was backed by the time was that a group of racing enthusiasts the Yves St Laurent aftershave brand, Kouros. It working within the company had identified was a deal brokered by former BMW Motorsport the suitability of the M117 for the Group C fuel boss Jochen Neerpasch, then working for Mark formula introduced in 1982. That’s how Sauber McCormack’s IMG management group. The ended up running Merc powerplants. German would go on to reprise his role with Sauber-Mercedes C9 BMW at Mercedes during Sauber’s glory years third in the points respectively behind Jaguar’s in sportscars. Martin Brundle. Those years came after a momentous The 1989 season would be different for the boardroom decision at Mercedes in mid- C9s, now running in the same Silver Arrows January 1988 to officially end its motorsport colours in which Mercedes had notched up exile. The renamed Team Sauber Mercedes so many successes in the years before and squad, running in the colours of Daimler-Benz after World War II. The arrival of the M119 subsidiary AEG, made a winning start as a engine, effectively a four-valve version of its factory entry with an uprated version of the C9. predecessor, was important. Price describes it It won the WSPC opener at Jerez with its solo as “more powerful and better on consumption”, C9/88 shared by Jean-Louis Schlesser, Mauro though development of the C9 and the Baldi and Jochen Mass, but the truth was that improvements in the structure of the team were the team wasn’t ready to take on reigning just as crucial in what turned out to be a season champions Jaguar and the TWR team. Sauber of domination by Team Sauber Mercedes. wouldn’t reach the top step of the podium Only once would Sauber fail to win in ‘89. again until July, after a disastrous Le Mans Ultra hot temperatures at Dijon killed its rear in which its cars were withdrawn after Klaus Michelin tyres, allowing the Joest Porsche team Niedzwiedz suffered a high-speed blow-out on on Dunlops to take a surprise victory. The C9 the Mulsanne. also took the big prize at Le Mans, finishing By Le Mans, Sauber had a new British team manager in Dave Price. He recalls joining a team that had yet to organise itself in a way befitting of a full-factory squad. “It was very small when I first went there,” recalls Price. “Leo Ress was doing everything; he was the designer and engineering both cars. They probably had no more than 12 people in total including Peter and Max. There was also a link-up with Price’s fledgling DPS Composites company, which started producing components for the C9. “We tidied the car up a bit,” he says. Sauber ran two cars in each of the six races post-Le Mans and ended up winning four of one-two with Jochen Mass, Manuel Reuter and them. Schlesser and Baldi took second and Stanley Dickens leading home Mauro Baldi, Kenny Acheson and Gianfranco Brancatelli. “It was a piece of cake,” reckons Price. “We used to go to the races expecting to win. Once you’ve got that mentality, it’s very hard not to win.” Jean-Louis Schlesser, who had joined Sauber at the end of ‘87, ended up taking the drivers’ title in a year that the team blocked out the top four places in the final classification. Team Sauber Mercedes wrapped up the teams’ title with a couple of races to spare such was its dominance. Acheson, who won two races with Baldi and was on the podium a further four times in 1989, has fond memories of the C9. “It really was a nice car and quite frankly we dominated that season,” he recalls. “It was the best year of my career and I feel lucky to have driven for a top operation like Sauber Mercedes.” The C9 had one last hurrah. Development of the new carbon-chassis C11, now called a Mercedes rather than a Sauber, was delayed and the team wheeled out the previous year’s machinery for the 1990 season opener at Suzuka. The cars notched up another one-two, Baldi and Schlesser heading home Mass and Karl Wendlinger, one of three young guns who would race the second car that year. Michael Schumacher was one of the others. Team Sauber Mercedes dominated the WSPC once again and the German manufacturer cemented its place in the landscape of international motorsport. The C9 was the car that had set Mercedes on its way. Click Here for our C9 video featuring Kenny Acheson. .