Sauber suffered one other dismal race weekend in Canada, and but Valtteri Bottas insists the important thing to bettering the efficiency of the Swiss outfit’s automotive “isn’t rocket science”.
The longer term Audi works outfit is caught in a rut. The crew is the one one on the grid with out a single level to their title, and their qualifying performances have steadily declined for the reason that begin of the 2024 season.
In Montreal, after each Bottas and teammate Zhou Guanyu began their race from the pitlane following the crew’s determination to reconfigure its automobiles after qualifying, the Finn made some respectable headway within the combined circumstances, operating as excessive as P12 throughout his first stint on the intermediate tyres.
Nonetheless, Bottas then misplaced a place after switching to the slick tyre “one lap too early” because the monitor began to dry, ultimately concluding his afternoon P13.
The F1 veteran rued the misstep as he felt that it robbed him of a possible top-ten end given the retirements suffered up forward in a while by each Ferrari drivers and Pink Bull’s Sergio Perez.
In the meantime, Alpine, Sauber’s direct rival, capitalized on the chaos, securing two top-10 finishes.
“We nonetheless have work to do,” mentioned Bottas. “We have to preserve bringing upgrades and make the automotive quicker. It isn’t rocket science, we simply want extra bits.”
Bottas recommended that a number of adjustments have been on the docket for subsequent week’s Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.
“Now we have small issues however a really excessive downforce monitor, a unique monitor to right here,” he mentioned. “I feel it will be shut, as we now have seen. The subsequent step is to get again to Q2 after which we will struggle a bit higher.”
©Sauber
As for Zhou, the Chinese language driver admitted to having spent a “lonely” afternoon, remoted on his personal on the tail finish of the sphere. The 25-year-old, who induced two purple flags in follow following off-track excursions, conceded that it had been a messy weekend.
“Simply struggling throughout the completely different compounds,” he commented. “On the midway stage of the race, I used to be a bit out of the race anyway, so a bit lonely.
“Now we have one thing already deliberate again on the manufacturing facility to test every little thing, make certain we’re beginning somewhat bit extra from scratch.
“These two weekends, I really feel like one thing is just not clicking proper and this weekend, all these errors, they by no means occurred earlier than.
“So we attempt to perceive all of our points and have some plans for the following race.”
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