SAUBER
Sauber has become one of the harder teams to judge this year due to the late arrival of its 2016 car. The Swiss team was alone in launching its car at the second test, leaving only four days to understand its new chassis before Australia. Budget constraints mean the car is an evolution of last year’s design, but it did start strongly in 2015 and will hope to do so again this year.
The lack of pre-season running could scupper such hopes, however, and the late payment of February wages highlights just how tight things are financially for Sauber. Problems now also suggest there will be little in the way of developments for this car - similar to last year - and a new set of regulations due for 2017 will take up a lot of the team’s resources.
McLaren should improve, but with Haas likely to take a while to fully find its feet it looks like Sauber will again need to score good results in the first few races as it fights not to be second bottom of the pile once again.
Silbermann's view
When one considers that the word “Swiss” when used as an adjective usually implies great wealth, it’s ironic that Sauber always appears to be short of a bob or two. Somehow they line up on the grid, hopefully not with four drivers as was briefly the case in Melbourne last year and manage a couple of sparkling moments per season, usually involving running a massively long tyre stint to haul one of their cars into a podium position. These usually come early in the season, before the richer teams power past on the development front.
