Bad news for Swiss F1 fans: Audi opts for German national anthem
F1 News
- Ludo van Denderen
For the time being, it seems hypothetical: Stake F1 - also known as Sauber - winning a Grand Prix and thus having the Swiss anthem playing after the race. The Swiss anthem currently makes sense, as the team was founded in 1993 by Swiss Peter Sauber and is headquartered in Hinwil. Yet in the foreseeable future, in case of a team victory, the German anthem will be played instead.
Sauber will, in fact, become Audi's factory team, and the manufacturer has decided that they will also enter Formula 1 under the German flag, Audi told GPblog. This automatically means that upon a victory, the German national anthem will be played rather than the Swiss one. From 2026, that will certainly be the case; whether it will happen in 2025 as well is still unclear.
Audi takes over Sauber completely
Right now, Sauber and Audi are in the process of share transition. Audi will become a 100 per cent (i.e. sole) shareholder. This process is currently ongoing and is not expected to be completed until the end of this year or the beginning of 2025. It is not possible to change the country under which the team competes during the season.
So if Audi does not already fully own Sauber at the start of '25, it will be driven under the Swiss flag throughout the season. Audi F1 will incidentally operate from two locations: Hinwil in Switzerland and Neuburg in Germany.
Only Kubica made the Swiss anthem play for Sauber
Incidentally, it is certainly not common for Sauber to win a Grand Prix. Only once did the team celebrate a victory in Formula 1, in 2008. That was when Robert Kubica won the Canadian Grand Prix as BMW Sauber's driver. German BMW was Sauber's partner at the time, but the team continued to race under the Swiss flag.