Sauber’s miserable season continued at the Singapore Grand Prix as they finished in P15 and P16, although they did manage to cross the line ahead of Pierre Gasly and Daniel Ricciardo.
Once again, Valtteri Bottas did a great job in qualifying, outpacing his teammate Zhou Guanyu by almost half a second as they were slowest once again.
However, in the race, it was more complicated for the Finn. After locking up at turn 5 on lap 5, he lost crucial momentum heading down the back straight to turn 7, and he was passed by Zhou.
Afterwards, the 10-time race winner explained his front brakes were overheating.
“Yeah, we did. It was tough, but like you said, at least [ahead of] a couple of cars.
“In the beginning of the race I had an issue with the front brakes overheating. That’s actually why I lost the position. I started locking up.“
In the closing laps, Pierre Gasly came back at the Saubers on soft tyres as he did a very long stint trying to aide Esteban Ocon.
Bottas explained how his teammate kept him within his DRS to fend off the French driver.
“And then in the end it was just me and Zhou kind of together tried to be within each DRS in the end to defend Gasly, and that worked.”
Asked if he felt they were a little bit better compared to qualifying, Bottas said the gaps were big despite executing a good race.
“I think the gaps are still quite big if we look ahead.
“I think today everything went pretty smooth, but actually on this track it seemed like we could defend.”
For a second straight weekend, Zhou Guanyu was the lead Sauber driver when the chequered flag was thrown, showing the Chinese driver is more comfortable with the car on high fuel.
Bottas praised the 25-year-old for his strong showing.
“I think Zhou had a strong race today, he was really consistent.
“I struggled to follow closely with the sliding. But yeah, otherwise I think that’s where our pace was.”
As no Safety Car appeared for the first time in the 16-year history of the Singapore Grand Prix, the 35-year-old explained fuel saving was required.
“Yeah, I know. Didn’t really get any help with that.
“I was surprised actually, I was waiting [for] when it was going to come, it never came. So I had to do some fuel saving.”
He added both Saubers started on the hards in anticipation of a Safety Car coming out at some stage, as well as the fact they degrade their tyres faster than anyone else due to a lack of downforce.
“Yeah, exactly.
“And also knowing that when we don’t have the pace with the softer compounds, if we want to keep up, we’re sliding a lot, so that’s why [we went for] the hard.
“I was happy [to go with it]. In the end, I think it was the right thing to do.
“But yeah, it’s just when you don’t have the pace, no magic happens.”
Barring some wild events at present, Sauber looks set to not score a single point this year.
The team is hoping to bring an upgraded package for the C44 to Austin. It’s still unclear how big it will be.
“Of course I’m hoping so, but we’ll see.
“Austin, we will have new bits. But like I said on Thursday, we’re not quite sure yet exactly what, so hopefully it’s a big one.”
