Beat Zehnder | |
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| Born | 9 January 1966 |
| Nationality |  Swiss |
| Citizenship | Swiss |
| Occupation | Engineer |
| Employer | Alfa Romeo Racing |
| Known for | Formula One mechanic and team manager |
| Title | Sporting director |
Beat Zehnder (born 9 January 1966) [1] is a Swiss Formula One engineer. He is currently the sporting director at the Alfa Romeo Racing Formula One team. He has been with the Swiss team since its inception in 1993, and has attended every single race. [2]
Beat Zehnder has been a part of the Sauber family since the 1980s. He started with the Swiss outfit as a mechanic in the early days of the team's partnership with Mercedes Benz, moving from the number two mechanic to the number one in the space of a year. When the team began to concentrate their efforts on launching their own F1 team, he moved across from the mechanics side to work on logistics. [3] However, Zehnder was swiftly returned to his mechanics duties, becoming the team manager and chief mechanic in 1994. [4] In 1995, Peter Sauber asked Zehnder to concentrate exclusively on logistics and team management and thus he became the team manager, which is a role he still holds today, albeit in an evolved form as Sporting Director at the renamed Alfa Romeo Racing. [5] In his current role Zehnder represents the team in discussions with the FIA and sporting working group as well as managing logistics and garage operations. Throughout his time at the Swiss team, Zehnder has mentored many drivers such as Kimi Raikkonen, Felipe Massa, Sebastian Vettel, Robert Kubica and Charles Leclerc. [6]
Zehnder is married to Nadine Imboden. The couple were married in 31 December 2006. [7]
Scuderia Ferrari S.p.A. is the racing division of luxury Italian auto manufacturer Ferrari and the racing team that competes in Formula One racing. The team is also known by the nickname "The Prancing Horse", in reference to their logo. It is the oldest surviving and most successful Formula One team, having competed in every world championship since the 1950 Formula One season. The team was founded by Enzo Ferrari, initially to race cars produced by Alfa Romeo. By 1947 Ferrari had begun building its own cars. Among its important achievements outside Formula One are winning the World Sportscar Championship, 24 Hours of Le Mans, 24 Hours of Spa, 24 Hours of Daytona, 12 Hours of Sebring, Bathurst 12 Hour, races for Grand tourer cars and racing on road courses of the Targa Florio, the Mille Miglia and the Carrera Panamericana. The team is also known for its passionate support base, known as the tifosi. The Italian Grand Prix at Monza is regarded as the team's home race.
Kimi-Matias Räikkönen, nicknamed "The Iceman", is a Finnish racing driver who competed in Formula One between 2001 and 2021 for Sauber, McLaren, Ferrari, Lotus, and Alfa Romeo. Räikkönen won the 2007 Formula One World Championship while driving for Ferrari; he also managed to finish second overall twice and third three times. Räikkönen is the most successful Finnish Formula One driver by several metrics, and has the sixth-most podium finishes (103), third-most fastest laps (46), and second-most race starts (349) in Formula One history. He is known for his reserved personality and reluctance to participate in public relations events.
Robert Józef Kubica is a Polish racing and rally driver, competing for AF Corse in the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship. He previously competed for Team WRT where he won the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship in the LMP2 class. He was the first and, as of 2023, only Polish racing driver to compete in Formula One, making his latest appearance in the 2021 Italian Grand Prix.
Sauber Motorsport AG is a Swiss motorsport engineering company. It was founded in 1970 by Peter Sauber, who progressed through hillclimbing and the World Sportscar Championship to reach Formula One in 1993. After operating under their own name from 1993 until 2005 then again from 2011 until 2018, Sauber Motorsport AG renamed their Formula One racing team to Alfa Romeo F1 Team in a partnership deal with Alfa Romeo from 2019 to 2023. Sauber is set to be the Audi factory team for the 2026 season onwards.
James Key is a British engineer who has worked in Formula One. He was most recently the technical director of Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake.
Italian motor manufacturer Alfa Romeo has participated many times in Formula One. It most recently participated as Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake while being operated by Sauber Motorsport AG. The brand has competed in motor racing as both a constructor and engine supplier sporadically between 1950 and 1987, and later as a commercial partner since 2015. The company's works drivers won the first two World Drivers' Championships in the pre-war Alfetta: Nino Farina in 1950 and Juan Manuel Fangio in 1951. Following these successes, Alfa Romeo withdrew from Formula One.
There have been nine Formula One drivers from Finland who have taken part in races since the championship began in 1950. Three drivers have won the World Drivers' Championship, with Keke Rosberg being the first in 1982. Mika Häkkinen won it in 1998 and retained it in 1999, becoming the first - and so far only - Finnish double world champion. Kimi Räikkönen is the most recent Finnish champion having won the title in 2007.
Antonio Maria Giovinazzi is an Italian racing driver who currently competes in the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship driving for Ferrari – AF Corse and also serves as the reserve driver for Scuderia Ferrari, Haas and Alfa Romeo Racing in Formula One. He was the 2015 FIA Formula 3 European Championship runner-up and raced with Prema in the 2016 GP2 Series, again finishing runner-up with five wins and eight overall podiums. He made his competitive debut for Sauber at the 2017 Australian Grand Prix, replacing the injured Pascal Wehrlein. He also replaced Wehrlein at the following Chinese Grand Prix as Wehrlein continued his recovery. He raced full time for Alfa Romeo Racing from 2019 to 2021. During his tenure for Ferrari AF Corse, he won the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans alongside James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi.
Alessandro Alunni Bravi is an Italian lawyer and manager, best known for being Managing Director of the Sauber Group of companies since 2022 and Team Representative of Alfa Romeo F1 team since 2023. Throughout his Motorsports career, Alunni Bravi held the position of Team Principal and Managing Director of Trident Racing and General Counsel of ART Grand Prix and Spark Racing Technology, amongst other ventures, as well as acted as legal counsel for over twenty years.
Zhou Guanyu is a Chinese racing driver who currently competes in Formula One for Alfa Romeo. He is the first, and so far, the only Chinese driver to compete in Formula One. He competed in the FIA Formula 2 Championship for UNI-Virtuosi Racing from 2019 to 2021, having finished 3rd in the 2021 campaign.
Frédéric Vasseur is a French motorsport engineer and manager with a long career managing Formula-series teams. He is currently the team principal and general manager of Scuderia Ferrari, and was previously the managing director, CEO, and team principal of the Switzerland-based Alfa Romeo Racing.
Ruth Buscombe is a British strategy engineer for the Alfa Romeo Racing Formula One team. A first class honours graduate of the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering, she began working in Formula One with Scuderia Ferrari at its headquarters in 2012 as a race strategist. Buscombe later moved to Haas in November 2015 to become the team's strategy engineer. She left Haas in June 2016 and was employed by Sauber three months later, helping the team to finish ahead of rival Manor Racing in the 2016 Constructors' Championship. Buscombe is an ambassador for Dare to be Different.
Julien Simon-Chautemps is a French motor racing engineer. He has been race engineer of the Sauber Formula One team since 2017.
The Quadrifoglio is the brand used by the Italian auto manufacturer Alfa Romeo to indicate a high performance model, similar to that of BMW M, Mercedes-AMG, Fiat Abarth and Audi S/RS.
The Alfa Romeo Racing C38 is a Formula One racing car designed and constructed by Alfa Romeo Racing to compete during the 2019 Formula One World Championship. It is the first Sauber-engineered car to be badged Alfa Romeo following a team renaming deal struck with Sauber Motorsport AG in February 2019. It was Alfa Romeo's first season as a F1 team since 1985. The car was driven by Kimi Räikkönen and Antonio Giovinazzi, and made its debut at the 2019 Australian Grand Prix. The car finished 8th in the Constructors' Championship with 57 points, 43 for Räikkönen and 14 for Giovinazzi.
The 2021 Dutch Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 5 September 2021 at the Circuit Zandvoort. It was the thirteenth round of the 2021 Formula One World Championship and the first Dutch Grand Prix to take place since 1985. The race was won by Max Verstappen – prior to him, no Dutch driver had won their home race.
The Alfa Romeo Racing C39 is a Formula One car constructed by Alfa Romeo Racing to compete in the 2020 Formula One World Championship. The car was driven by Kimi Räikkönen and Antonio Giovinazzi, returning for their second year with the team. Robert Kubica acted as the team's reserve driver. The car was planned to make its competitive debut at the 2020 Australian Grand Prix, but this was delayed when the race was cancelled and the next three events in Bahrain, Vietnam and China were postponed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The C39 made its debut at the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix.
Jan Monchaux is a French and German Formula One engineer.
Willem Hendrik Toet is a Dutch-born Australian–British Formula One aerodynamicist. He is currently the Senior Sales Manager and Aerodynamics consultant for Sauber Aerodynamics and Alfa Romeo Racing. He was previously the head of aerodynamics for the Sauber F1 team but stepped down in 2015.
The Alfa Romeo Racing C41 is a Formula One car constructed by Alfa Romeo Racing to compete in the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship. The car was driven by Kimi Räikkönen and Antonio Giovinazzi, who returned for their third year with the team. Robert Kubica drove for the team at the Dutch and Italian Grands Prix replacing Räikkönen who withdrew from the events after testing positive for COVID-19. The chassis was designed by Jan Monchaux, Luca Furbatto, Lucia Conconi, Alessandro Cinelli and Nicolas Hennel with the car being powered by a customer Ferrari powertrain.
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