The Sauber C17 was the car with which the

Sauber Sauber Motorsport AG, currently competing in Formula One as Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber, and also known simply as Kick Sauber or Sauber, is a Swiss motorsport engineering company. It was founded in 1970 (as PP Sauber AG) by Peter Sauber, who pro ...

team competed in the

1998 Formula One World Championship The 1998 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 52nd season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1998 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 1998 Formula One World Championship for Constructors, which were contest ...

. It was driven by Frenchman

Jean Alesi Jean Robert Alesi (; born Giovanni Roberto Alesi, 11 June 1964) is a French former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to . Alesi won the 1995 Canadian Grand Prix with Ferrari. Born and raised in Avignon, Alesi started karting a ...

, who joined from Benetton, and Briton

Johnny Herbert John Paul Herbert (born 25 June 1964) is a British former racing driver and broadcaster. He competed in Formula One from to , winning three Formula One Grands Prix over a 12-season career. In endurance racing, Herbert won the 24 Hours of Le ...

, who was in his third season with the team after an impressive 1997 season.

Season summary

1998 confirmed Sauber's position as a respectable midfield runner unable to make the final breakthrough needed to become a top team. The team's package was quick and reliable, but not quite enough to regularly score points. Indeed, Alesi and Herbert finished just outside the points, in seventh, no less than five times. The highlight of the year was Alesi's run to third at the

1998 Belgian Grand Prix The 1998 Belgian Grand Prix (formally the LVI Foster's Belgian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 30 August 1998 at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps; it was the thirteenth race of the 1998 FIA Formula One World Championship. The race ...

to score the team's fourth podium since their F1 début in 1993. This capped an encouraging season for the Frenchman, who was duly kept on for another year. Herbert, despite a points finish in the first race of the season, lost his motivation after a sequence of bad luck and narrowly missing out on further points. He decided to move to Stewart for 1999, and would be replaced by

Pedro Diniz Pedro Paulo Falleiros dos Santos Diniz (; born 22 May 1970) is a Brazilian former racing driver, businessman and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from to . Born and raised in São Paulo, Diniz began karting aged 18 and achi ...

. The team eventually finished sixth in the Constructors' Championship with ten points. This was their best WCC position so far despite scoring the lowest amount of points up until then, but there was still some way to go to take on the likes of

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello. Founded in 1939 by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988), the company built Auto Avio Costruzioni 815, its first car in 1940, adopted its current name in 1945, and be ...

and

McLaren McLaren Racing Limited ( ) is a British auto racing, motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. The team is a subsidiary of the McLaren Group, which owns a majority of the team. McLaren is best known a ...

. It was with this car that the last rounded-shape steering wheel in Formula 1 was used. All steering wheels have been rectangular since then. For the first few races, X-wings were used, but they were banned after the San Marino Grand Prix.

Complete Formula One results

( key) (results in bold indicate pole position)

References

*'' AUTOCOURSE 1998-99'', Henry, Alan (ed.), Hazleton Publishing Ltd. (1998) C17 1998 Formula One season cars {{F1-stub