Sauber: Gap to main competitors ‘not unsurmountable’

Sauber is the only F1 team on the grid that has yet to open its points tally in 2024, but the Swiss outfit is working hard to put itself in the top-ten mix and insists its performance gap to its main rivals is not unsurmountable.

Since Miami, neither Valtteri Bottas nor Zhou Guanyu have managed to advance past Q1 in qualifying, while the pair’s best result on race day in the past three events was Bottas’ P13 finish in Monaco.

There’s no denying that the Hinwil squad’s results are falling well short of expectations, with seemingly little reason to believe in a turnaround.

Yet team representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi believes that the team is pushing hard to put itself back on the right track and aims to make the most of its upcoming Canadian Grand Prix weekend.

“Although our performance hasn’t matched our expectations so far, we are determined to put all of it behind us and start anew: we know how hard everyone is working within the team and we know that, in absolute terms, the gap from those ahead of us is not insurmountable,” commented Alunni Bravi.

“We travel to Montreal hungry for points and positive results, and everyone back in Hinwil has been hard at it over the past two weeks to achieve that.

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“The field is tight, and competition is tough, but we are ready for the challenge.

“We have seen in recent events how our performance was close to that of our main competitors; it’ll be important, now more than ever, to maximise the return of every single lap on track and be ready to make the most of any opportunity.

“This way, we’ll be able to make the step forward and turn the tide on our season.”

Bottas has a solid track record in Montreal and the Finn hopes to extend his good run of performances at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve next weekend.

“There’s no denying that things haven’t gone well recently, but the team is motivated, and we used the days after our return from Monaco to analyse what didn’t quite work out and how to improve from there,” said Bottas.

“We scored points in the two most recent outings in Montreal, and it would be nice to get back at it right here. Our goal, as usual, is the same: to be at the top of our performance from Friday onwards, and qualify in favourable spots on the grid, ready to battle it out on Sunday.”

While Sauber is down, the team isn’t out contends Zhou Guanyu who has no doubts about his team’s motivation to pull it out of the doldrums.

The Chinese driver singles out qualifying as the area where Sauber crucially needs to improve.

“We knew we had work ahead of us after Monaco, and that’s what the team did: we regrouped and worked together to give ourselves the best chance to turn our fortunes around this season,” he added

“Even though we are yet to score points, our motivation isn’t gone, quite the opposite: we are determined to make a change to how this season is unfolding and get back where we want to be.

“We know how just a hundredth of a second could make a big difference in qualifying, where we need to make the biggest gains: we must keep focused and deliver at the top of our game all weekend long, aiming for the top ten.”

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