• Stake F1 Team revealed the Kick Sauber C44 this week.
• The team has adopted a bright green paint job while also introducing a raft of improvements to the outside and internals of the car.
• The seemingly deep involvement of both Stake and Kick.com should help to prevent confusion for fans when the team races in countries where online gambling is illegal.

Last year was the last year Alfa Romeo raced under the Formula 1 banner. While it’s unlikely to be the last we hear of the legendary automaker, the news was cushioned somewhat by the news that Sauber would be the team’s name once more.

This will be the case until 2026 when Audi joins the Formula 1 grid but for now, Sauber will run its team under a rather confusing array of names.

The title sponsor for the team is online gambling platform Stake but the chassis naming rights were acquired by Kick.com. The team itself will be known as Stake F1 Team, but the car will seemingly go by the name Kick Sauber C44. We suspect this duality of names exists to cause as little upset in countries where online gambling is illegal meaning the team can plaster Kick.com over the car instead of Stake without upsetting authorities or confusing fans.

Of course Stake could just keep its name on the car but we doubt it wants the headache of fines or potential legal action.

We should note, however, that this isn’t going to help either company from distancing itself from the other as they have tried to do in the past.

Anyway, the car the Stake F1 Team is bringing to the 2024 season is rather swish. Decked out in a luminous green livery Sauber is calling Fluo Racing Green, it wouldn’t look out of place in a video game.

It’s not just a new paint job the team is bringing to the track. In a blog post, Sauber said it had moved to pull-rod front suspension system which the team hopes will improve the aerodynamics of the vehicle. The team has also redesigned the aerodynamic package to take advantage of this new suspension system. Both the engine cover and sidepods have been redesigned.

The floor has also been completely remodeled to produce more downforce while also allowing the team to fit the car in a smaller space for travel.

For those who want to read more, Mark Hughes gives an excellent technical analysis of the new car over on the official Formula 1 website. The analyst described the changes as moving towards a “Red Bull design philosophy” which sounds hopeful, especially to the Stake F1 Team’s drivers.

“First, you know, you can’t miss the colour,” Zhou Guanyu, driver for Stake F1 Team said in a statement. “It’s a very exciting new approach, especially in Formula 1. And then from my side, of course, we’re hoping to be a fast one. We’ve been putting in a lot of effort since the last season, especially in the second half of the year, after the summer break, just to make sure that we’re understanding exactly where we had to improve as a team and what the plan for the guys back in the factory would be for the winter: now is the time we everything together and get the car on the track,” the driver added.

Last year, Alfa Romeo finished 9th in the Constructors Championship only beating Haas by four points. Whether the team can pull a McLaren and start running with the likes of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull remains to be seen.

Pre-season testing begins on 23rd February so we won’t have to wait long to find out.