F1: Cash-strapped Sauber find a buyer

Sauber's money problems have been well documented in recent years, especially during this 2016 season. After repeated delays in paying staff wages, feverish speculation that the team might have found a new financial backer was sparked this month, when Sauber actually managed to settle its June payroll on time.

The team confirmed as much on Wednesday, announcing that investment company Longbow Finance S.A. would "fully acquire Sauber Holding AG," the ultimate holding company for all Sauber operations including its main enterprise, the F1 team.

"As a Swiss company, we are very pleased with having secured the future of a Swiss presence in a highly specialized and innovative industry," Pascal Picci, president and CEO of Longbow Finance, was quoted as saying.

Sauber's team principal and CEO Monisha Kaltenborn, who will remain in her post after the buyout, called the investment company the "perfect partner to again make the team competitive and successful in Formula 1."

Diversifying to pay the F1 bills

"At the same time, the new structure will allow us to finally further expand our third party business in which we commercialize our know-how," Kaltenborn said.

Sauber might be taking a leaf out of rival "privateer" F1 team Williams in this regard. Williams Advanced Engineering - a spinoff separate from the F1 team specializing in hybrid power solutions for the racetrack, the road and for public transportation - has become a profitable means of subsidizing Sir Frank Williams' primary passion. Williams has broadly emerged from a period of deep financial instability, as Sauber would surely hope to in the coming years.

Kaltenborn said the deal was "in the best interest of our employees, partners, loyal suppliers, the base in Hinwil and … Swiss motorsport."

Rest at last for Peter Sauber

Sauber's founder and face, Peter Sauber, will seek to retire from F1 - for the second time. He already took a back seat once, when BMW bought out his team. However, he was forced to jump back into the breach in 2010 after BMW abandoned the series and no other buyer emerged.

"Monisha Kaltenborn and I yesterday signed an agreement which secures the future of the Formula 1 Team and the Sauber Group," Sauber said, before alluding to his own phoenix impression to rescue his life's work. "I am very happy that my courageous investment to buy the team back, which I made six years ago, with the intention to secure the base in Hinwil and the place in Formula 1, has proved to be correct."

Before entering Formula 1, Peter Sauber made his name through his endurance racing team Sauber Motorsport - enjoying several successful seasons competing with Mercedes machinery, especially in 1989 and 1990. A crew including former F1 driver Jochen Mass won the 1989 Le Mans 24 Hours for Sauber - and the team became a major proving ground for German-speaking talent. Seven-time F1 champion Michael Schumacher, race-winner Heinz-Harald Frentzen, and Austria's Karl Wendlinger count among the youngsters to drive Sauber Motorsport endurance racers before breaking into F1.

Once in F1, Peter Sauber retained his reputation as a spotter and nurturer of talent - giving F1 debuts to impressive drivers including Frentzen, Felipe Massa, Kimi Räikkönen and Robert Kubica. A teenage Sebastian Vettel even made his F1 debut with BMW Sauber, deputizing as a one-off for the injured Kubica in the 2007 season.

Bottom in the 2016 standings

Struggling with the current fiscal demands of F1, especially since the introduction of new power units for the 2014 season, Sauber has become a vocal critic of the way the sport is run. Kaltenborn's team has led the ongoing complaint to the European Commission, seeking to demonstrate that the prize money system employed in the series is unfair and contravenes EU rules. The implications of this case on the F1 series, nominally based in Britain, could have become clouded since May's "Brexit" vote in the UK.

In more than 23 seasons in F1 - starting in 1993 - the Hinwil-based team has only ever won one Grand Prix, in Canada in 2008. This was during its period under BMW ownership, with Poland's Robert Kubica at the wheel. Nick Heidfeld finished 2nd that day in a "BMW Sauber F1 Team" one-two.

A private limited company based in Switzerland, Longbow Finance S.A. has been operating for more than 20 years.

This season, despite not being the slowest car on the grid, Sauber remains the only team that is yet to score a world championship point. Prize money revenues are based in large part on points scored in the previous season.