 At the , Sauber scored 20 points; Pérez used a one-stop strategy to move from twelfth on the grid to take his third podium of the season with second place, while Kobayashi finished in ninth place.Kobayashi took his first podium finish and the team's fourth of the season at the ; the following week, it was announced that Peter Sauber was stepping back from the daily management of his team, handing the role of team principal to Kaltenborn.On 23 November 2012, it was announced that Nico Hülkenberg, Esteban Gutiérrez and Robin Frijns would make up the team's line-up for the season; Hülkenberg and Gutiérrez as part of the race team and Frijns as reserve driver.