A mixed first weekend in Bahrain for Sauber

“We delivered a very consistent race and we demonstrated that we were the sixth team in the championship in racing conditions. » To state this with confidence, Alessandro Alunni Bravi, representative of the Sauber team, relies on the beautiful eleventh place of Guanyu-Zhou at the Bahrain Grand Prix. However, arriving at such an observation seemed very complicated Friday afternoon at the end of a qualification where the two drivers remained stuck in Q1, with 16th and 17th places for the Finn Valtteri Bottas and the Chinese. 

However, the Kick Sauber C44 then woke up on Saturday to gain pace. « Zhou had a solid race, making no mistakes and tying theAston Martin de Stroll for most of the race, which is a very good sign for the season to come,” welcomes Alessandro Alunni Bravi.

“Still a lot to improve” at Sauber

“Today we maximized everything we could and I'm happy that we were able to fight so close for the points. We had a clean race with a good start where I was able to gain a few positions, but it was quite difficult to keep the Aston Martins behind without compromising our tires. Fortunately, I managed to keep Kevin Magnussen and the rest of the peloton behind me", rejoices Guanyu Zhou, who finished just outside the points.

“We made progress over the weekend and the team worked hard to find the optimal settings. Unfortunately, we weren't able to score any points without anything happening to the cars in front of us. We still have a lot to improve on and we will continue to work on our performances to be able to compete more for points in Jeddah and in the upcoming races. »

A pit stop that ruins everything

As for Valtteri Bottas, this “just wasn’t [his] day.” “I had a good start, but then I was caught up by the incident in the first corner between Nico Hulkenberg and Lance Stroll, which led to front wing damage that caused me to lose ground and performance,” deciphers the 2019 and 2020 world vice-champion with Mercedes, before calling back « the problem with the wheel nut during the second pit stop, which caused us to lose even more time (52,4 s, Editor’s note)”.

Pit stop drama for Valtteri 😨#F1 #BahrainGP pic.twitter.com/Bocy60r2xE

— Formula 1 (@F1) March 3, 2024

“Luck wasn't on our side today, but I hope this is the only bad luck for this season. Positive point to remember, our pace was significantly better than that of our main competitors. This shows that we have a better race car than last season and gives us confidence for Jeddah next week,” completes Valtteri Bottas. 

For Alessandro Alunni Bravi, “the result should give confidence to our team and encourage us: it is possible to take new steps and improve our performance. In particular, improving our one-lap performance, even before Jeddah, would give us a greater chance of fighting for points. »

“We now need to focus on the next step: we know the areas of our car that we need to improve: if we continue to work as we have in recent weeks, there will be opportunities soon. »

Kelman Marti

ALSO READ > Harman and De Beer resign, Alpine makes its technical revolution