The Sauber C15 was the car with which the Sauber team competed in the 1996 Formula One World Championship. It was powered by the Ford Zetec-R V10 engine and driven by German Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who was in his third season with the team, and Briton Johnny Herbert, who moved from Benetton.
After an encouraging performance in with a full-works Ford V8 engine, 1996 did not confirm the progress Sauber had made during 1995 because as the team developed the troublesome Zetec-R V10, problems with the new unit's power delivery resulted in the team scoring only 11 points, despite the theoretical power advantage over a V8. That score, compared to its 1995 tally of 18 points was fairly little bearing in mind that in 1995 Sauber had a significant performance difference between Heinz-Harald Frentzen and his respective team-mate (Karl Wendlinger in the first four and the last two races of 1995, and Jean-Christophe Boullion during the rest of that season) while that was not the case in 1996.
The drivers proved well-matched, with Frentzen having a slight edge over Herbert. However, the German left the team at the end of the year to join champions Williams for . The team's second podium finish since its F1 début in was scored by Herbert at the chaotic 1996 Monaco Grand Prix, with Frentzen in fourth. Heinz-Harald scored further points at Catalunya and Suzuka.
The team eventually finished seventh in the Constructors' Championship, with 11 points.
The C15 features a brighter shade of blue livery with a teal dash pattern on the side of the car; as the team now utilized Petronas fuels and lubricants.
() (results in bold indicate pole position)