Shock Sauber move for Lewis Hamilton revealed

Sauber F1 founder Peter Sauber has revealed that Lewis Hamilton almost signed with the team in a move that would have dramatically altered the future of the sport.

Hamilton had just won the 2006 F2 title, and was destined for a McLaren seat. However, the team were not sure that they could offer that to him straight away, with Fernando Alonso already confirmed to arrive for 2027, and reserve driver Gary Paffett also in serious contention to fill the second seat.

It came after Juan Montoya left the team during 2006, as well as F1, promoting Pedro de la Rosa into the second seat temporarily, while Kimi Raikkonen had already signed a deal with Ferrari for the 2007 season onwards.

Hamilton was therefore able to step up into the Woking-based outfit's car straight away, competing for the world championship in his rookie season alongside two-time world champion Alonso at the team.

But now, Peter Sauber has revealed that his team almost took Hamilton on loan from McLaren for a season or two.

At that stage, Sauber were running under the BMW Sauber name, and finished fifth in the 2006 constructors' championship with Nick Heidfeld, Jacques Villeneuve and later Robert Kubica at the wheel of their cars.

"No one knows that about 20 years ago, Hamilton was about to race with Sauber," the Hinwil outfit's founder told Blick. "McLaren wanted to send Lewis to Hinwil for his apprenticeship. So the team delegation met Lewis, his father Anthony, me, and our lawyer Monisha Kaltenborn at Kloten Airport, near Zurich.

"Then the deal fell through because McLaren wanted to loan him out for just one season, while we insisted on a two-year loan."

Sauber's farewell

While Hamilton certainly benefitted from being thrown straight into the deep end at McLaren - winning the drivers' championship in his second season - BMW Sauber did pretty well themselves, managing second in the constructors' championship in 2007.

The next season actually saw them claim their one and only win as an F1 constructor too, with Kubica claiming success at the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix.

2025, however, was the final season in which the Sauber name was competing in the sport, with Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg guiding them to a ninth-place finish before Audi enter the sport in 2026.

Audi have taken over the Sauber team, but have maintained various key aspects of the team, with Bortoleto, Hulkenberg and team principal Jonathan Wheatley all staying in their posts.

It meant that the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix brought to an end 32 years of Sauber running in the sport, after the team first entered the 1993 South African Grand Prix in Kyalami.

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