Sauber CEO and team principal Monisha Kaltenborn said she was happy with the recovery the team had made in 2015 but that it needed to progress further and faster in 2016, and that she is looking to the team's new technical director to provide the necessary advances.
After a tough time in the last two years that saw the team struggle badly with a precarious financial situation, Kaltenborn was confident that Sauber had bounced back and had enjoyed a decent season given the circumstances they had started from.
"I am in principal I will say happy because in many ways we have come back to where we usually are," said Kaltenborn last week in Brazil. "But there is more potential there that we have to utilise next year, so I'm not totally happy.
"We have to be particularly self-critical to ourselves, that here and there we could have done things differently.
"I know that people work very hard, so this is not any criticism towards the team that is doing the work because they have severe limitations. It is just the overall outcome - wherever the mistake is made, that shouldn't happen because that ruins the chance that you have."
Despite the mention of still-ongoing tight financial limitations, Kaltenborn confirmed that the team's basic budget for 2016 was in place.
"The basics are there, but you know you always have the argument of what is basic," she said. "For some it's less, for some it's more, so for our engineers it's never enough.
"But it's changing within the company. You can work more on your efficiency which we really already do a lot, so we are going in the right direction step-by-step which I think has been showing this year."
The appointment of Mark Smith as the team's new technical director will also make a big difference to the team in 2016, Kaltenborn predicted. Smith came on board in July, but the 54-year-old who formerly held top-level posts at Caterham, Force India and Red Bull won't be able to make his impact properly felt on the team until the new 2016 car is rolled out after the winter break.
"Mark has a lot of experience, in particular if you are in a situation where you have your constraints, so he's very calm about that - very level-headed," said Kaltenborn.
"He has very clear visions which he's bringing in step-by-step. And if you have the experience how to lead the team on the technical side within these limitations he's going the right way there.
"He has the full support of the team, his people under him, and I'm very sure that we'll see a lot of his ways on the technical side of maybe simplifying things, of being even more efficient in the new car.
"It's going to be very tough to score points [next year]," she added, mindful of Manor's new engine deal with Mercedes and the arrival in the sport of Haas F1 with its technical alliance with Ferrari.
"You really will have to do that on your own, because a lot will have to go wrong if you're just going to get into the points."
This season, drivers Felipe Nasr and Marcus Eriksson have between them put Sauber in the position where they go into the final race of the year ahead of the once-mighty McLaren in the championship standings, and Kaltenborn is keen to ensure that stays the case in Abu Dhabi although she's wary of her rivals' potential to bounce back.
"You should never underestimate anyone," she pointed out. "We saw that last year, one race things go wrong and look where you end up. I would never underestimate them."
See also: Sauber wary of Manor and Haas threats
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