Sauber suffered one other dismal race weekend in Canada, and but Valtteri Bottas insists the important thing to enhancing the efficiency of the Swiss outfit’s automotive “isn’t rocket science”.
The long run Audi works outfit is caught in a rut. The group is the one one on the grid and not using 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 group’s choice to reconfigure its automobiles after qualifying, the Finn made some first rate headway within the combined situations, 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 observe 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 Purple 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 hold bringing upgrades and make the automotive sooner. It isn’t rocket science, we simply want extra bits.”
Bottas recommended that just a few modifications have been on the docket for subsequent week’s Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.
“We’ve got small issues however a really excessive downforce observe, a unique observe to right here,” he mentioned. “I believe it’s going to be shut, as we’ve seen. The subsequent step is to get again to Q2 after which we are able to combat 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 sector. The 25-year-old, who brought on two pink flags in follow following off-track excursions, conceded that it had been a messy weekend.
“Simply struggling throughout the totally 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.
“We’ve got one thing already deliberate again on the manufacturing unit to examine all the things, be certain that we’re beginning a bit bit extra from scratch.
“These two weekends, I really feel like one thing shouldn’t be 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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