Without making much noise in over ten years, Peter Sauber and his Formula One team have earned a reputation for being unremarkable in the good sense of the word. No scandals, or lawsuits, or controversy with drivers, make Sauber an almost atypical team. Following the launch of their 2004 challenger, F1 journalist Dieter Rencken analyses Peter Sauber's particular way of working

Go check the word 'sauber' in a German dictionary. It means 'clean'.

And, fitting the name is, too, for cleanliness - in the widest sense of the word - is the Sauber way of life. This cleanliness is often mistaken for blandness or sterility, much as a spotless kitchen is (and should be) unremarkable. Put differently, would you describe the fare dished up by a Greasy Spoon remarkable only for its filth as being 'colourful' or having 'character'? Or taste?

Sauber, of course, carries the surname of team founder and driving force Peter - citizen of Switzerland; resident of Hinwil, from whose boundaries he has never wished (nor needed) to move. How many team bosses lay claim to operating in the area of their birth or off the original family property? Of the nine, only Ron Dennis can be linked to the former distinction, and none to the latter. (The McLaren CEO freely admits to being custodian, not founder, of the operation, which, circumstantially, was based a few miles from his hometown when acquired his interest.)

But, with Sauber, matters get even closer to home. Not for Peter the ego-trips of naming cars after himself. All cars constructed by Sauber - whether local hillclimbers in the sixties, sports racers in the seventies, Le Mans-winning behemoths in the eighties or podium-scoring F1 projectiles in the nineties and new millennium - are suffixed by 'C', followed by a simple model, numerical designation - in the case of the 2004 F1 challenger, C23.

Simply, touchingly, the 'C' is in honour of Peter's wife, Christina. Some F1 cars are designated after their team's founder, or 'R' for Racing or 'F' for Formula or other initial(s), but none after the 'mother' of the team. (Understandable it is, though, that a certain Grove team owner did not designate his cars 'VW' after wife Virginia: he was heavily dependent upon Ford engines when he entered the formula...)

But, we digress. The most remarkable thing about Sauber, the youngest of independent teams, is that it is unremarkable. Remarkability in Formula One is easy to acquire - do wrong things in abundance; shout off the rooftops; cause (or worse, lose) litigation; take on the establishment, and you're marked.

Unremarkability, though, in this most continuous and visible of world class sports, is fundamentally impossible to achieve. Yet, Sauber has achieved just that through a quiet, dignified modus operandi. One that courts no controversy, one that is as coolly efficient as the Swiss lever watches now so sought after by clock connoisseurs and collectors.

There is a word in the paragraph above which, in another context, is totally alien to the Sauber: 'court'. Proceedings brought against or by the team, whether involving drivers, sponsors, the sport's controlling body or any other party are totally unheard of; never even whispered. Never has the team complained about rising costs, threatened bankruptcy, challenged the neither the FIA nor Concorde.

Present at the launch on Monday, for example, was ex-driver Johnny Herbert, chirpy as ever. Why was he there? "I respect Peter and the team enormously, and remain in contact even though my F1 career is over." The Essex man is not the only driver to stay in touch with his former team. A year ago, when celebrating its 10th season in F1 in Zurich's Hallenstadion with a bespoke ice show, no less than 10 former drivers - including Karl Wendlinger, JJ Lehto, Kimi Raikkonen, Jean Alesi and Mika Salo attended and were happy to go on stage. With the present norm in F1 being the badmouthing of former teams, the turn-out speaks volumes.

Talking Salo, remember Interlagos 2000, when Sauber's rear wings delaminated in qualifying on the track's notoriously bumpy surface? Without drama and with great dignity Sauber withdrew the entries of the Finn and Pedro Diniz, despite the fact that Parmalat's South American subsidiary was bankrolling the Brazilian's seat, and this was his home race; despite that every team was sniffing around that Malaysian petro-giant Petronas in the knowledge that its agreement with the team it joined in 1995 expired at season's end.

Felipe Massa could oh-so easily walked away from Sauber after being deemed too young and inexperienced following his expensive 2002 season. But, he is back after a year's testing at Ferrari - extremely grateful for the 'gap' year which saw him cover 15,000 kilometres without a single written off red chassis. That the young Brazilian would return was always Peter's intention: "At the end of 2002 we said not 'Goodbye' to Felipe, but 'Aufwiedersehen'" - which translates to "until we see each other again".

Echoes, here, of Heinz-Harald Frentzen in 2003 - the German made his Grand Prix debut with Sauber in 1994, and returned to end his F1 career with the team last year. Offered a possible 2004 lifeline by a former team he chose DTM with Opel instead.

With such loyalty amongst Sauber's drivers, any surprise, then, that sponsor Red Bull has been onboard since 1994? This despite major disagreements between Peter and energy drinks baron Dietrich Mateschitz over the potential of Raikkonen. The Austrian decided to sell, and used Credit Suisse to bridge-finance the deal, and the financial is now shareholder and partner in Sauber. As for Red Bull, it remains as sponsor for the tenth straight season. So, a double-whammy there.

Or, further surprise, then, that Petronas - still continuously wooed by all and sundry - is no longer only technical sponsor and engine provider, but also shareholder in a subsidiary? Forget not that, when the relationship started with the Asian giant, Sauber was a Swiss family-held operation. Today, Petronas seconds engineers to Sauber-Petronas AG in rural Zurich for training!

A year ago, just as F1 was squealing about tight times, Sauber added Russian mobile telephone giant MTS to its not inconsiderable portfolio. At the time I asked Sauber how he had managed it. "I don't think it's coincidence that we find and keep sponsors at a time when others can't," he explained without expansion. None was needed.

On Monday he announced the acquisition of Sokhna Port (a high-tech container and bulk handling port on the Red Sea) and Taikang Life (China's sixth largest life assurance company). Just in time races for in Bahrain and Shanghai. Have, though, any sponsors left the team for 2004? The answer has two letters.

The technological relationship with Ferrari - extended now to include transmissions - is as tellingly simple. When asked how he had managed to prise a supply of engines out of the most hallowed name in the sport, Peter grinned: "I asked them…" Of course he did, but the point is that he thought of it; nobody else did.

The 'Blue Ferrari' moniker, of course, sits uncomfortably with the team, for, apart from rear end mechanicals and, previously, rented wind tunnel time, it draws upon its own facilities, most of which are way beyond the call of the (older) non-corporate teams.

Its new wind tunnel stands as shining example: whilst other outfits were examining, then buying, and finally stalling on wind tunnels, Peter let slip to a sceptical 2001 launch audience at Hinwil that he had authorised expenditure on Europe's biggest such facility. Last month the $55m tunnel was officially opened, and, guess what: it IS presently Europe's biggest and best, capable of accommodating 60% models at 10º of slip and yaw on a 'road' moving at 320 km/h.

The enormous facility could have served admirably as launch venue (was, in fact, originally designed with such functions in mind) this Monday past, thus providing further ego massages. But, no, Sauber chose to honour Mateschitz & Co. (and to thank the company for its unstinting support) by unveiling in Red Bull's magnificent Hangar-7 party facility on the edge of Salzburg's airport.

Honesty, too, is a Sauber byword. With Williams and McLaren both adopting twin-keel suspension mounting, it would be easy for the team to grab credit - despite reverting to single keel for this year in the interests of torsional rigidity, and, say some, at Ferrari's (Bridgestone-orientated) request - for the innovative design which it was first to race.

On Monday Sauber was at pains, quite correctly, to point out that the late, much-missed Harvey Postlethwaite, with his experimental Honda/Dallara chassis, had pioneered twin-keels. "Everybody thinks (Sergio) Rinland, whilst with us, invented it, but that is not so. We were merely the first to race it.."

So, with the sublime services of Giancarlo Fisichella, the now-tempered skills of Massa, a new wind tunnel, the same-spec Ferrari engines as used by Schumacher and Barrichello, a stiff, single-keel chassis, increased sponsorships and stable partnerships, Peter Sauber really is F1's Mr Clean in more ways than one.