The Kick Sauber C44 is a Formula One car designed and constructed by Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber to compete in the 2024 Formula One World Championship. The car was driven by Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, both in their third and final year with the team. The C44 was the first chassis to re-inherit the Sauber name after the conclusion of the naming rights partnership with Alfa Romeo. While substantially different than the preceding Alfa Romeo C43, the car experienced poor reliability and regressed during the season after a number of upgrades failed to address fundamental issues. The C44 relegated Sauber to a last place finish in the World Constructor's Championship for the first time since 2017, scoring four total points in the penultimate race of the season at the Qatar Grand Prix.

The C44 was the first Sauber design to be led by James Key, who reunited with then-CEO Andreas Seidl after his dismissal from McLaren. He inherited a design started by longtime designer Jan Monchaux, who was replaced by the team in August of 2023.^[2] Key claimed that the C44 was a clean sheet design, sharing only very select designs with the preceding C43.^[3] In a first for the team, the car utilized an in-house transmission casing that housed its customer Ferrari gearbox.^[2] The C44's initial design inherited a new pull-rod front suspension as used by Key at McLaren and featured a new downwards-sloping sidepod with very tight packaging.^[4][5] Following the investigation into the C42's upside-down crash at the 2022 British Grand Prix, Sauber abandoned its unique roll hoop and air intake designs for a more conventional A-shape design on the C44.^[2][6]

Following the conclusion of Sauber's naming rights partnership with Alfa Romeo, the team unveiled a new title partnership agreement with the Australian-Curaçaoan online casino Stake.^[7] The team sold the C44's chassis naming rights to the company's streaming subsidiary Kick, adopting the latter's branding and altering the team's entry name in jurisdictions where gambling sponsorships are outlawed.^[8]

The C44 made its track debut at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya during a promotional filming exercise, later making its public debut at official preseason testing at Bahrain International Circuit.^[7]

Following preseason testing, a new front wing was developed and deployed at the second round of the season at the Australian Grand Prix.^[9] However, this development was negated by a substantial issue caused by new lightweight wheel nuts introduced on the C44. This new design cross-threaded the team's wheel guns and caused dramatically slow pit times upwards of thirty seconds, ejecting the C44 out of points positions in the opening rounds.^[10] A new ground effect floor introduced at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix did not have the desired effect, and the car slipped firmly towards the back of the grid.^[11] In the first seven rounds of the season, the C44 achieved a best result of fourteenth and did not meaningfully threaten for a points-paying position.^[12]

New rear and beam wings introduced at the Monaco and Canadian Grands Prix did not increase performance,^[11][13] prompting the team to revert Zhou Guanyu to an early-season specification in an attempt to diagnose engineering correlation issues with the team's upgrades.^[14] At this time both drivers expressed concerns with the C44's tyre management capabilities, with both commenting publicly that they struggled to bring their tyres up to the required performance operating envelope in both qualifying and race trims.^[15][16] Shortly after the summer break, the team's owner Audi AG publicly declared that the team's performance to that point was 'unacceptably poor'.^[17] Pundits variously commented that the team's struggles may have derived from Audi's fixation on the 2026 championship and executive infighting that led to Seidl's dismissal from the team during the summer break.^[18][19] In the period from Monaco to the Dutch Grand Prix, the C44 achieved a best result of thirteenth on three occasions and still did not threaten for points.^[12]

The C44 experienced an aerodynamic breakthrough at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, where a fundamentally redesigned floor geometry changed floor fences, leading edges, and the rear diffuser.^[20][21] Both cars reached Q2 on merit during qualifying, with Zhou finishing in thirteenth on merit ahead of competitors including Aston Martin, Williams, and RB. At the next round, the C44 achieved its only points finish of the season in eight position with Zhou Guanyu.^[22] At the end of the season, the C44 participated in Pirelli tyre testing at Yas Marina Circuit with new drivers Nico Hülkenburg and Gabriel Bortoleto.^[23]

Year	Entrant	Engine	Tyres	Drivers	Grands Prix																								Points	WCC
					BHR	SAU	AUS	JPN	CHN	MIA	EMI	MON	CAN	ESP	AUT	GBR	HUN	BEL	NED	ITA	AZE	SIN	USA	MXC	SAP	LVG	QAT	ABU
2024	Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber	Ferrari 066/12 1.6 V6 t	P	Valtteri Bottas	19	17	14	14	Ret	16	18	13	13	16	16	15	16	15	19	16	16	16	17	14	13	18	11	Ret	4	10th
				Zhou Guanyu	11	18	15	Ret	14	14	15	16	15	13	17	18	19	Ret	20	18	14	15	19	15	15	13	8	13
Source: [12]

• Official website