Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsSauber

'Intense programme' planned for Sauber

Sauber is planning an "intense programme" during the post-race test in Barcelona next week to defend its position in the constructors' championship.

Following the Spanish Grand Prix, the teams will remain at the Circuit de Catalunya to carry out two days of testing. While Felipe Nasr says he is concerned Sauber will be left behind by its rivals when it comes to development, head of track engineering Giampaolo Dall'Ara says the test will see the team working hard to improve the car.

“After an encouraging pre-season campaign at the Circuit de Catalunya, we head back there with some solid race achievements and aerodynamic upgrades," Dall'Ara said. "The first European race is known for a number of teams introducing improvements to their cars, therefore it will be important for us to keep up momentum and fight for points.

"We are aware that the conditions will be fairly different to how they were two months ago, and, therefore, some set-up adjustments will be needed to get the medium and hard tyres to work at their best in warmer temperatures.

"After the race, the team will stay in Spain for the first two days of in-season testing, when Marcus [Ericsson] and Raffaele [Marciello] will work through an intense programme mainly featuring aerodynamics, the braking system and the rear suspension.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.