Sauber has enjoyed a spectacular progress this season, but technical director Simone Resta believes the Swiss outfit's solid foundation can keep it moving forward next season.
Undermined by financial constraints and management dissensions, Sauber sorely made up Formula 1's rear in 2016 and 2017, and came close to a painful demise as a result.
A financial restructuring and a series of internal changes initiated a year ago, coupled last winter with a commercial tie-up with Alfa Romeo, enabled the team to shed its dead weight and start afresh.
The Hinwil squad, also armed this season with a new-spec Ferrari engine and the talent of the mercurial Charles Leclerc, is now a contender in F1's fiercely competitive midfield, putting on the board more than double the number of points it scored in the last two seasons put together.
For the recently appointed Resta however, who took over as technical director at Sauber in May, the team has the capacity to continue its forward march in 2019.
"I believe the team has shown a very strong recovery and improvement this year, so it shows that the foundations are there and the competition is there," Resta said.
"The team is growing in terms of size and the technical grounding is good, there are good facilities as an independent team with a good technical background.
"I think there are all the ingredients to have a step forward. My biggest focus is 2019, but it needs to be a gradual journey so I can understand where we start from."
Despite Formula 1 tweaking its regulations next year, with mandatory changes mainly centered around a simplified front-wing design, Resta believes the outfit's C37 represents a good foundation from which to extrapolate next season's charger.
"Without doubt next year there is going to be a big change in terms of aero regulations, so some of the content cannot be translated from one car to the other," explained the former Ferrari engineer.
"The main parts of the car and the main technical regulations in terms of the vehicle itself are going to be the same, so I am sure we can translate most of the content from one car to the other.
"But we need to improve, and there is a lot to do and a lot to be found."
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