The 2024 Formula 1 season has started in chiaroscuro for the Sauber team. Due to an unfortunate turn1 incident, front wing damage of his C44 and a very slow stop, Valtteri Bottas ended the Bahrain GP in penultimate place.
In contrast, his teammate’s performance was encouraging, finishing a positive eleventh place for Zhou ahead of the Racing Bulls and Albon’s Williams.
Sauber: the C44 lacks pace with little fuel but there are ideas to find it
However, Zhou’s comeback did not erase a truly dull performance by the C44 in Friday qualifying, with both drivers eliminated in Q1. Sauber was second-slowest – only Alpine was slower in low-fuel.
“In the race, we performed as we expected, while we expected a better qualifying.
“It’s still a shame that we weren’t able to reach tenth place.
“But the race pace left us with good feelings for the next Grand Prix,” said Xevi Pujolar, trackside engineering at Sauber.
According to the Swiss team, the difficult qualifying on Friday in Bahrain cannot however be attributed to a C44 that is unable to generate enough energy from the tyres.
“We are struggling at low speeds, and this problem manifested itself more clearly in qualifying
“But we have some ideas on what we can do to solve the problem,” said the Spanish engineer.
The Hinwil team focused on testing to understand a largely new car. The new pull-rod front suspension, of the same design as Red Bull, Mclaren and Racing Bulls, gave the latter setup problems.
Even at Sauber, they are not yet satisfied with optimising their mechanical progress.
This weekend is a chance for the team to resolve the lesson.
“We tried to extract the maximum and, perhaps, in terms of mechanical set-up, we still have some work to do,” Pujolar confirmed.
On the strategy side, however, the Swiss team performed very well. Zhou’s eleventh place was partly thanks to very good strategic calls.
In the first phase of the race, a long DRS train had formed with many cars from the so-called midfield.
The Swiss team saw fit to bring the stop very early, stopping their Chinese driver on the ninth lap.
This produced a very heavy undercut against Haas, Williams, Aston Martin and Racing Bulls, with Zhou actually returning to the track in ninth position after his opponents had made their Pit Stop.
However, Aston Martin’s pace was not sustainable in Bahrain for the C44.
“With more fuel, I managed to keep the Aston Martins behind me, but as the fuel ran out, they started to have an advantage over us, ” Zhou concluded.
Sauber enter Jeddah with aim of P6 in standings
The GP started in the worst way for Valtteri Bottas, as he had an accident with Nico Hülkenberg at the first corner due to the collision between the German and Lance Stroll.
Bottas’ C44 suffered damage to the front wing, “but it didn’t seem like such a major damage,” said the Finn post-race.
This problem was so minimal that Sauber did not make a wing change in the pits. Endplates are not especially crucial in the current generation of F1 cars.
The accident occurred during the second stop when, during the tyre change, there was a problem with the assembly of the left front.
Sauber’s wheel nut became threaded. “We had an issue with the wheel nut, which we had to change, and that’s something we’re working on,” Pujolar said.
As a result, the tyre change took 52.44 seconds.
“That was my second-worst pit stop in history, So I hope it’s not the same nut as the Mercedes wheel from Monte Carlo,” Valtteri Bottas commented with a smile.
Some observers asked why Sauber did not take the opportunity to replace the broken front wing.
“I think we already had enough to do, so we thought we’d focus on fixing the nut problem,” Pujolar commented.
The Swiss team is not concerned about the pit stop issue, however, as Zhou’s two stops were performed flawlessly in 2.77 seconds and 3.03 seconds, ranking 17th and 28th of 43 pit stops made.
However, the team must learn very quickly. In fact, in a few hours, the second end of the season begins this weekend in Jeddah.
Sauber will take to the track with a very specific objective, namely to consolidate the current P6 in the Constructors’ Championship.
“Not only in the race, but also in qualifying. It won’t be easy because Racing Bulls, Williams and the other teams are all very close.
“So I don’t think we can relax. It will be a fight every weekend,” the Spanish engineer concluded.
Author: Piergiuseppe Donadoni
Translation: Jaden Diaz-Ndisang
