Sauber are having one of their toughest seasons in Formula One as the team languishes at the back of the pack. At the Singapore Grand Prix, their driver Zhou Guanyu finished 15th out of the 18 finishers.
The Chinese driver was relatively pleased with his race at Marina Bay, beating Valtteri Bottas on merit. His qualifying struggles continued as he was almost half a second off the Finn on Saturday.
They also held off Gasly at the end, and he finished 10s behind Lance Stroll, something that surprised the 25-year-old.
“I think race pace was not as bad as one lap pace. It’s been like the case for the last two rounds, which is good to see it that way [rather] than the other way.
“But still, for me mainly with one lap pace, I’m just struggling trying to find the right zone for myself because from one day to another I’m just feeling a different offset of balance.
“But today I think it was a clean race at a similar pace to Lance and Pierre, which is not expected.
“We were expecting a very lonely race, but it wasn’t the case, which is something good to take.”
With only six races to go, Sauber is pushing for upgrades to make sure they don’t finish the season without a single point on the board.
Heading into the next round, the United States Grand Prix, Sauber is hoping to bring updates. The driver from Shanghai is hoping both cars will have them.
From the Dutch Grand Prix through to Baku, Bottas had been running with updates that Zhou did not have.
“Yeah, I’m praying for [upgrades on] both [cars] because this season definitely it’s been quite delayed with the upgrades.
“He already had it, let’s say, from Zandvoort, I didn’t have the same car as Valtteri.
“So I’m just hoping the upgrades can be on both cars.”
Zhou argued that the upgrades will probably not make the their car half a second faster, but noted it would still be better than what they have now as they will take any performance going.
“We still don’t know yet.
“But yeah, I wouldn’t say that upgrade will give us a half second that we need it. It will be just very marginal.
“But still, it’s better than where we are now.”
Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu has almost been the most one-sided qualifying head-to-head this year. The 35-year-old is 17-1 in qualifying.
While the Chinese driver has openly admitted many times he’s struggled on a Saturday over a single lap, he has generally been far closer on race day.
Zhou is pleased with the step he’s made in race trim as he beat the Finn for a second successive weekend, even if it has been difficult for him to show his full potential with an older-spec car compared to Bottas.
“Yeah, it’s worse for me, of course, but it’s how it is sometimes.
“Of course, for my side, it’s not an easy season in general, fighting with the car for one lap pace, fighting with performance, but at the same time, not getting the same equipment.
“So yeah, it’s a tricky one, but I’m just glad that on tyre management and high fuel, I was able to make a big step compared to last year.
“I just can’t show on paper, because we don’t have the performance to do so.”
