Sauber secure entry for 2010 season

Swiss-based Sauber will take departed Toyota's place as Formula One's 13th team next season, the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) said.

"The FIA has written to inform BMW Sauber AG that their application for an entry in the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship has been successful," the FIA said, referring to the team by its former name.

"Subject to their signing the Concorde Agreement (the commercial agreement that binds teams to the series until 2012), BMW Sauber will be awarded the 13th entry in the Championship, taking the place of the departing Toyota team."

Munich-based carmaker BMW, who bought an 80 per cent stake in the team in 2005, announced in July that they were pulling out of the sport at the end of the season just finished.

A deal to sell the team to mysterious Swiss-based investment fund Qadbak fell through and BMW said last week that they had handed back control to founder Peter Sauber.