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"A natural process" - Peter Sauber

(GMM) Peter Sauber has brushed aside suggestions that he is 'sad' at the demise of privateers in formula one.

In 2006, the passionate Swiss will no longer feature on the pitwall, even though new team owner BMW has elected to retain the Sauber name.

Also missing will be Paul Stoddart's Minardi, and the Jordan and BAR names. In recent years, Prost and Arrows went broke, and the 2006 entry list reads more like a roll-call of carmakers, without Benetton or Brabham, Ligier or Lotus.

But Sauber, 62, is not nostalgic.

''It is a natural process,'' he told the 'swissinfo' agency, ''that also takes place in the normal business world.''

Sauber insisted: ''To say it's sad is a romantic way of looking at things and there is no space for romance in the business world.''

Peter did, however, find a little room in racing for romance -- all of his cars carried the letter 'C' in their designation. The 2005 Sauber, for example, was the C24. For those who don't know, it stands for Christiane, his wife.

But Sauber smiled: ''The initial idea was not (romantic). I am a very rational thinking person and I needed a name for my cars. I started with A1, but the name was taken by somebody else. So was B1, so I settled for C1.

''Then (I) had to think of an explanation.''

Written: Thu, 29 Dec 2005 17:17:50