But all that changed in 2005 when the stoggy-smoking Swiss went one better and instead of partnering sold to BMW.

With the benefit of hindsight, the demise of one of the sport's most renowned privateer teams competing in F1 was inevitable.

Forever fighting an uphill battle with meagre resources, the team consistently punched above its weight.

But, as with any boxer on the ropes, there was a limit to how much 'punishment' it could take.

The 2005 season, the team’s final one as a private outfit, was a disappointing affair which summed up the need for greater financial muscle.

With former world champion Jacques Villeneuve and Ferrari-bound Felipe Massa in the driving seats for 2005, Sauber had hoped for a repeat of their 2004 improvement. It didn’t happen.

To start with, Villeneuve’s arrival at the team caused a few headaches because even before his first race the media questioned the wisdom in signing the French/Canadian, who’d only contested (and not very well at that) three GPs the previous year.

However, his fourth place at the San Marino GP went some way towards silencing his critics and the press left the Swiss team alone to get on with what was a mediocre campaign.

So mediocre even their tradition of having an encouraging start to the season, a gradual dip and then finally a disappointing decline was abandoned - there was never any high to come down from.

And when Sauber's final grand prix as a F1 team boss ended with the last lap of the Chinese GP, his squad was down in eighth place on the constructors' log, having been overhauled by both Toyota and Red Bull.

2005 wasn’t a total loss though, as midway through the year he sold his team to BMW, who officially took over the reigns on January 1, 2006.

BMW were quick to sign Nick Heidfeld, who they’d worked with at Williams, as one of their 2006 drivers, although they were somewhat reluctant to honour Villeneuve’s two-year Sauber deal. In the end they did.

In its two new German additions Sauber, now rebranded as BMW-Sauber, have the perfect recipe for success.

While Heidfeld brings speed, talent and relative youth to the mix BMW have the financial backing and motor racing knowhow the team needs to move up the grid.

That though may not happen in BMW's first year as a team owner. But it will in the future.