’I’ve gone up another level’ - Ericsson

Marcus Ericsson says he stepped up another level in the battle with team-mate Felipe Nasr over the four races before the mid-season break.

Nasr secured Sauber’s headline result of the season so far with fifth place in the Australian Grand Prix, and currently sits ten points clear of Ericsson in the drivers’ championship with both drivers having scored on three occasions. With Sauber less competitive in recent rounds, Ericsson has found himself with the upper hand in terms of results and told F1i he feels the improvement in his driving.

“I think I’ve gone up another level in myself and also in the team battle I’ve been doing a good job now,” Ericsson said. “It’s three-one in the last four races, which is good. So I just need to keep on doing what I’m doing at the moment, not lose the momentum and keep pushing.”

And Ericsson believes the timing of his improvement is good, expecting Sauber to make a step forward in the second half of the season after he finished tenth in Hungary.

“I think we can hope for progress on the car. We get updates at the next race on the engine which should give us a chunk of time, and then after that in Singapore we get the aero updates as well. So those two combined hopefully means we can have a more fun second half of the year and maybe we hope to be back on a level like we were at the beginning of the year, to fight for top ten positions without the help of others.

“So I think the result in Hungary boosts everyone and it was a great way to finish off before the summer break.”

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