Sauber insists current struggles unrelated to Audi's F1 2026 plans

Sauber is refuting claims that their current lack of competitiveness is due to the Swiss outfits upcoming transition into becoming the full Audi F1 works team in 2026.

Sauber’s struggles this season are undeniable, with neither Valtteri Bottas nor Zhou Guanyu able to score a single top-ten finish in the first nine races of this year’s campaign.

An uncompetitive C44 car coupled with operational and execution missteps have left the team trailing its rivals.

While team representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi readily acknowledges Sauber’s poor display, the Italian believes its competitors’ development has outpaced its own progress.

“I think we can say that the performances are not there, so there is nothing to hide,” Alunni Bravi said.

“At the beginning of the year we had quite good performance compared to our main competitors, but we didn’t translate this into results, for all the reliability issues that have been, I would say, quite evident.

• Read also: Zhou reverts to older-spec Sauber chassis for Spanish GP

“And now, the other teams made a bigger step with the latest updates, especially Racing Bulls, also Alpine, and we need to recover the gap.

“We fixed the reliability issues, especially the pit stop, But on the single laps in qualifying, we are not there where we should be if we want to fight for the points.”

It has been suggested that Sauber’s ongoing transformation into Audi’s 2026 works effort in F1 is having an impact on the team’s current operations, an assumption expressed in Barcelona by Bottas.

“Obviously, yeah, there’s been quite a few things going on in the team in terms of for a better future,” said the Finn.

“So sometimes you might take a step back to take two steps forward. So that’s part of the game, but I hope we’re in better shape. That’s all I can say.”

On the other hand, Alunni Bravi insists the team’s current performance objectives are aligned with their long-term aspirations.

"I think it's a mistake to mix both things," he said. "I don't think that the preparation for the Audi works team is affecting the current two seasons, and it must not.

"I think that we have weaknesses that we are trying to address. Andreas has been working from last January on improving the team in this transformation process.

"But the transformation process starts from the improvement of the current structure and in finding the right people to reinforce our technical teams in every area.

"I don't think that there are two separate tasks to be done, one for the works team and one for the current team.

“There are not two separate teams. There is one team that needs to be the foundation for the works team."

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter