Sauber’s scoreless streak continued at the Austrian Grand Prix where neither of their drivers Valtteri Bottas nor Zhou Guanyu could put their Sauber C44 cars within the Top 10.
In qualifying, neither car progressed to Q2 with Bottas only managing 18th, while Zhou had to start from the pit lane following a Parc Fermé infringement after the team made set-up changes.
During Sunday’s race, Bottas finished in 16th with Zhou behind him in 17th, a lap down on race winner George Russell.
Speaking after the race, Sauber’s Racing Director Xevi Pujolar was totally honest, admitting the team struggles on a high-speed track like the Red Bull Ring.
However, he added they had difficulties in the low and medium speed corners as well, unlike Barcelona a week before.
“It was a difficult weekend as you have seen. Even if we had like two opportunities with the sprint format, lacking a bit of pace. Everything is extremely tight and we are just still on the wrong side of it.
“Normally we struggle a bit more in higher-speed corners, that was still the case here. But also in turns like medium-low speed, like turn one, turn three, also struggling a bit more than in Barcelona, for example, where our performance was better.“
Pujolar continues by explaining that consistency was a problem for the team during the Sprint part of the weekend, but he stated that the race pace in the Grand Prix was better following changes.
“That put us in a bit more difficult situation, especially difficulties to get into Q2.
“In the Sprint race, with the high temperatures also, we struggled quite a bit for the consistency, but we applied some changes for the second part of the weekend. Today the pace and consistency was better.“
While Bottas was relatively close to Stroll, Albon and Tsunoda at the end, they did not have enough in the bag to properly fight with them and gain positions.
The team was experimenting with the rear wing level to find the best setup for the rest of the weekend. However, grip conditions meant the team would not run under the set-up for the following sessions.
“We were there with the competitors, but not enough to fight with them or to gain positions. So that’s where we are at the moment.
“It was just a different rear wing level, just because of the track.
“And then we used it in FP1, but then because of the grip conditions we didn’t use it any further for the weekend. We keep it for some other races, where we think the downforce level is appropriate, but we didn’t use that configuration for the weekend.“
Time is running out for Sauber as their competitors began to leave them behind in the Constructors’ Championship, hence why Pujolar stated that the team are trying to get upgrades on the car as soon as possible.
“I think we are pushing really hard because the competition is very tough, so we try to bring upgrades as soon as possible. We just need to see when we can introduce them.“
Pujolar concluded by discussing the team’s approach for the upcoming British Grands Prix, with the main goal of not finishing last and trying to be within the Top 10 as soon as possible.
“The goal should be first, to make sure that we are not last. That would be step one. And then let’s see how many teams we can overtake.
“But at the moment, the first goal for us is to score points. And that’s the target that we put at least in the short term, just to be in the top 10 if possible by Silverstone.”
