What Engine Does Kick Sauber Use In F1?

For outsiders, Formula 1 can look like a complex and confusing sport to follow. Drivers change yearly, manufacturers introduce upgrades to the cars, rules and regulations change, and even team names swap from season to season. Take Kick Sauber, as an example. The team's full and official name is Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber — not quite as catchy as Scuderia Ferrari or McLaren, is it? Wind the clock back just two years, and the Kick Sauber team was Alfa Romeo Racing. Before that, it was known as Sauber — see, confusing isn't it? Just to add another layer of confusion, the Kick Sauber F1 team will become the official Audi team next year.

However, right now, Kick Sauber is on the field and racing with both rookie Gabriel Bortoleto and seasoned racer Nico Hulkenberg at the helm of its cars. As of this writing, the team currently sits in eighth position overall in the standings, ahead of both Haas and Alpine, with Aston Martin just a handful of points ahead. That's not bad going for one of F1's smaller teams. And, like so many of those less-established teams, Kick Sauber has chosen to outsource its engines rather than develop them in-house at extortionate cost.

Following on from Alfa Romeo Racing, Kick Sauber currently sources its F1 engines from Ferrari. Other teams that also use Ferrari engines are, of course, Scuderia Ferrari and Kick's key rivals, Haas. The only other engine suppliers at present are Mercedes, Honda RBPT, and Renault.

Some enthusiasts of the sport find it all too easy to pick fault with modern F1 engines, and, in truth, it's actually quite easy to see why. Right now, F1 cars are powered by 1.6-liter hybridized V6 engines, which, while immensely efficient, lack the drama of F1's older V8, V10, and V12 engines, which many find more exciting.

Nevertheless, the specifications of these engines are simply amazing. To be precise, the exact engine used by Kick Sauber's 2025 F1 car — the C45 — is the Ferrari Tipo 066/15. It sports a single turbocharger, can rev all the way through to 15,000 rpm, and produces a mightily impressive 740 hp. It features a dry sump, tips the scales at just over 330 pounds, and is paired with a 161-hp single electric motor. Combined, that's a total output of 901 hp, in a carbon-clad racer which weighs just 1,764 pounds.

Unfortunately, power unit issues have afflicted Ferrari-powered models throughout the 2025 season, with a mysterious issue for Leclerc in Baku being the most recent. There are still seven races left to go this year, and if power issues continue to be a problem, then there is potential for Kick Sauber to lose out in the close fight currently ongoing in the constructors' championship. However, regardless of this year's outcome, the current Kick Sauber F1 team and its engines will look very different next year, as will the rest of the field.