When the United Kingdom became a colonial power, English was the "lingua franca" of the colonies of the British Empire. In the post-colonial period, some of the newly created nations which had many indigenous languages decided to continue using English as the lingua franca to avoid the political difficulties that had developed if one had decided to use only one of the indigenous languages.
French was the language of diplomacy in Europe from the 13th century, and as a result is still a working language of international institutions and is seen on documents ranging from passports to airmail letters. For many years, until the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Denmark joined in 1973, French and German were the only official working languages of the European Economic Community. French was also the lingua franca of European literature in the 18th century.
German was a "lingua franca" in large portions of Europe for centuries, mainly the Holy Roman Empire.
As it was one of the official languages of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, German remained an important second language in much of Central and Eastern Europe long after World War I. Today, it is still the most common second language in some of the countries in the region (e.g. in Slovenia (45% of the pop.), Croatia (34%), the Czech Republic (31%) and Slovakia (28%)). In others, it is also known by significant numbers of the population (in Poland by 18%, in Hungary by 16%).
During the time of the Roman Empire, the "lingua franca"s were Greek and Latin. During the Middle Ages, the "lingua franca" was Greek in the parts of Europe, Middle East and Northern Africa where the Byzantine Empire had much influence, and Latin was used in the rest of Europe. Latin was used as the common language of the Roman Catholic Church. During the Second Vatican Council, Catholic liturgy changed to local languages, although Latin remains the official language of the Vatican. Latin was used as the language of scholars in Europe until the early 19th century in most subjects.
Sauber
Sauber F1 Team is a Swiss Formula One team. It was founded in the 1970s by Peter Sauber. The team ran its first Formula One in .
Sauber was an independent team, it did not have the backing of a automobile manufacuer such as Ferrari. Having not won a single Grand Prix race, the team was sold to BMW in 2005. The team competed as BMW Sauber from 2006 to 2009, and won one race. At the end of the 2009 season, BMW deceided to leave Formula One.
The race team's future was uncertain for several months. BMW sold the team back to Peter Sauber which allowed the team to race in entry. Due to issues with the Formula One contract, the team name will remain BMW Sauber for the 2010 season.
Since the 1970s, Peter Sauber built sports cars. After using turbocharged Mercedes V8 engines in the 1980s, his team became the official factory team of Mercedes-Benz, reviving the Silver Arrow legend. They won the 24 hours of Le Mans and the World Sportscar Championship in 1989 and 1990, competing against Jaguar and Porsche.
Mercedes-Benz had planed to enter Formula One with Sauber. They could not work out all the details, so Mercedes withdrew their formal support. Mercedes continued to fund Sauber's Formula One project unofficially. The Sauber team was powered by V10 Ilmor engines in a chassis named the C12. This continued the Sauber's naming policy from the sports car days. The 'C' was a reference to Peter Sauber's wife, Christine. The cars were driven by JJ Lehto and Karl Wendlinger.
The Sauber racing debut took place in the first race of the season in South Africa. The car finished in fifth place, earning two points under the scoring system at the time. Over the remainder of the season the team rarely saw the finish of a race due to unreliability and racing accidents. When the team did finish a race, they were often in the top ten. Sauber ended the season with twelve points, seventh out of the thirteen original entries.
The team competed in the season as Sauber Mercedes, now officially Mercedes' factory team. Their new car was the Sauber C13 and the Ilmor engine was re-badged (given a new name) as the Mercedes 3.5 V10. Former Sauber sports car driver Heinz Harald Frentzen was Karl Wendlinger's new team mate.
Early performance was disappointingly, delivering similar results as the previous year. They only scoring a few points in the opening rounds. Things got worse after the tragic deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger at the San Marino Grand Prix. Wendlinger was seriously injured in a crash during practice for the Monaco Grand Prix. He suffered serious head injuries and was unable to race for the of the season. Wendlinger was replaced by Andrea de Cesaris. After Lehto had been released by Benetton, he drove for Sauber the last two races of the season.
Sauber finished the season with twelve points and eighth out of the fourteen original teams entered. Mercedes were unhappy with the progress of Sauber and left the team at the end of the year.
For , Sauber start the beginning of a ten year sponsorship deal with energy drink giant Red Bull. Dietrich Mateschitz had purchased a majority share in the team. Fritz Kaiser joined the team as the commercial director. The Sauber C14 used a factory supply of Ford-Cosworth. The 1995 season saw the return of Karl Wendlinger and Heinz Harald Frentzen as the drivers. Wendlinger's accident in 1994 seemed to have reduced his driving potential and he was replaced rookie Jean-Christophe Boullion.
The team finished on a record 18 points despite the under-performing Ford engine. They also climbed back up to seventh in the constructor's championship.
In 1995, Petronas become Sauber's presenting sponsor. They renewed their association in 2007, by which time the team had changed ownership.
Sauber used Ferrari designed engines from 1997 to 2005. They were built by Sauber Petronas Engineering, a company founded for purpose of building these engines. The engines were nearly identical to the ones used by Ferrari. Sauber Petronas Engineering also built the gearboxes used by Sauber. Sauber licensed nearly every part they could from Ferrari. Sauber even had several Ferrari engineers on staff. Suspicious similarities between Ferrari and Sauber chassis were pointed out, but no formal accusations were ever made. The FIA rules require each team to design their own chassis.
In Sauber brought a virtually unknown and very inexperienced Kimi Räikkönen into Formula One. There were protests by a few drivers and members of the FIA, including Max Mosley. They believed Räikkönen would pose a danger to other drivers. His good performance that year proved the Sauber decision right. Räikkönen would later go on to win the Drivers Championship with Ferrari.
In its later years, Sauber's ties with Ferrari became weaker. They sided with the other teams over planned rule changes. Then they decided to switch to Michelin tyres, while Ferrari continued to use Bridgestones. Sauber's final grand prix came in China. Sauber departed F1 with their best results; six third places and two front row starts.
Among the notable Sauber drivers were Jean Alesi, Formula One championship runner-up Felipe Massa, Johnny Herbert and World Champion Jacques Villeneuve. Two former Sauber drivers, Nick Heidfeld and Jacques Villeneuve, drove for the new BMW Sauber team in 2006. BMW ownership of Sauber started on January 1, 2006.
At the end of the 2005 season the team was bought by BMW and was renamed BMW Sauber. Peter Sauber retaining a 20% stake in the team. BMW sold its share of BMW Sauber back to Peter Sauber after the end of the 2009 season. Because of their contract with Formula One, the team still formally uses the name 'BMW Sauber' in competitions for .