As twenty cars hit the track at the United States Grand Prix, Sauber failed to turn its fortune around yet again as both drivers went home scoring zero points. While Valtteri Bottas managed to finish in seventeenth place on a one-top strategy, similar to the top ten drivers, Zhou Guanyu’s spin at turn 1 on lap 10 forced him to opt for a two-stopper, which saw him take the chequered flag in nineteenth place.
Speaking afterwards, Bottas was asked to narrate the story of how his race unfolded at COTA, besides the contentious incident of George Russell receiving a 5-second penalty for pushing the Finn wide on lap 13. He revealed that he pitted early since the Sauber pit wall had initially opted for a two-stop strategy. Stating that his hard tyres were still generating competitive lap times, the 35-year-old added that they decided to switch to a one-stopper after observing their rivals suffer minimal degradation on the hardest compound.
Moreover, the ten-time race winner justified the call of the pit wall by claiming that the two-stop strategy wouldn’t have delivered better results. Acknowledging that they have made a step forward in terms of race pace, he nonetheless remarked that they need to make further gains in order to finish inside the points.
“The story was that actually in the beginning of the race I was feeling quite positive that we could, you know, follow the pack and be present and not really be struggling to keep up with the train, so that was okay.
“But then we always planned for two stops today, so that’s why we stopped quite early. But as we saw other competitors were performing well on the hard tyre and our tyre was still feeling quite okay, we decided to convert to one stop.
“But it was a bit too long, because the second stint was a bit too long because we stopped so early, but I think it was the right thing to try. I think the result would’ve been not any better with the two stops today. So yeah, I feel like we’ve made some steps with race pace, but obviously we need more if we want to fight for points.”
Referring to the positive comments he had made about the new upgrades on Saturday, Bottas was asked to clarify whether he felt the same after the race. Admitting that his feeling inside the car and the overall competitiveness have improved, the Sauber driver nevertheless commented that the progress the Hinwil-based team has made is not adequate.
“It seemed like today I seem to have a bit better feeling overall and against the competition as well. It’s a bit better, but it’s still not enough.”
In terms of whether their competitiveness in the first stint on mediums was an encouraging sign, Bottas concurred that being able to keep up with the pack on tyres of similar age and only starting to bleed lap time towards the end of the long second stint was motivating for the team.
“Yeah, that first part with, yeah, being with everyone together with similar age tyre, we could be there and fight, so that’s good to see. It was just at the end of the second stint, which was a bit too long, that we started to lose ground.”
On the topic of what their expectations are heading into the race weekend in Mexico, Bottas responded that he is optimistic about their prospects given the diminished role that aerodynamics plays at the high altitude of Mexico City.
“Very different track, obviously with the thin air, aero matters a bit less in Mexico. So you never know, it could be our track.”
Having a good start from eighteenth on the grid, Zhou made up several places to run in P13 before he spun on lap 10 and dropped to last place, chasing the RB of Liam Lawson. When asked to address the incident and what led to it post-race, the Chinese driver was quick to apologise to the team and shoulder the blame entirely for the error that compromised his race.
Zhou explained that the track being too hot at turn 1 and the C44 hitting the bump at the wrong angle resulted in him losing control of the car. Furthermore, acknowledging the decent pace in the first stint, the 25-year-old admitted that he found the Sauber’s pace in his last two stints too underwhelming to make up for lost ground.
“Yeah, firstly, [I] apologise for the spin obviously; it was a mistake on my side.
“Yeah, I tried to attack Liam [Lawson]. [I] knew he had a hard compound after the Safety Car restart. And then turn 1 being a little bit too hot and the moment I hit the bump, I think, on the wrong angle, that was it. I couldn’t really do much more on the car.
“And then, after that, actually I was thinking maybe I had a pace to come back. But unfortunately, the pace was just gone away, I don’t know why, the last two stints. But the first stint, it did feel not too bad.”
