Sauber F1 reveal drastic new Stake livery after switch from Alfa Romeo

At a special event at London’s Guildhall, Sauber unveiled the C44, its challenger for the 2024 season of Formula 1.

Formerly racing under the Alfa Romeo name, Sauber will now go by the name Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber and the Kick fluorescent green heavily influences the livery along with carbon - something many teams seem to have chosen this year.

Sauber will have an unchanged line-up of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu for the third successive season as the duo aim to improve on last year’s ninth-place finish in the constructor’s championship. The world of F1 anticipates a transformation for Sauber to become an Audi works team in 2026.

The new car will take to the track on Friday for a shakedown around the Barcelona circuit before the real testing begins in Bahrain from February 21 to 23.

Sponsorship issue

Despite the excitement of unveiling its new livery, the Stake team name is proving to be an issue for Sauber as it prepares to race in countries where promotion of gambling is prohibited.

The plan for the team was to be more commonly known this year as Stake F1 Team. However, in countries where gambling advertising is banned, the intention is to run with the Kick F1 Team name.

Unfortunately, one of these countries is Sauber’s home in Switzerland and Stake does not have a Swiss licence, making it inaccessible to people in the country.

words: Mike Booth
pictures: Sauber