Vasseur: Sauber will need time to come back

Clean F1 Team seemed to have hit rock bottom last year. The stable ofHinwil had in fact finished last in the Manufacturers ranking, 25 points behind McLaren-Honda. The team was restructured, notably with the replacement of Monisha Kaltenborn by Frédéric Vasseur as Team Principal.

The 2018 season could be seen as a new start for Sauber which now has a partnership with Alfa Romeo, while the reigning champion of the F2 Charles Leclerc replaced Pascal Wehrlein.

However, Frédéric Vasseur warns that Alfa Romeo Sauber will not be able to immediately obtain better results.

“The goal is to get back into the pace (of the middle of the pack). We are far from it, we were already very far from it last year. So this is the first step. It would become more interesting for engineers, pilots, for everyone”, explained the Frenchman on the official F1 website.

Frédéric Vasseur draws in particular on the past of other teams which have subsequently experienced success in the discipline.

“We can’t make progress immediately. If you look at the draft Red Bull ten years ago or that of Mercedes started seven years ago, it took them a long time to fight for the title and win it. In the case of Mercedes, they bought Brawn who was world champion and it took them five years to win the title., recalled the director of the Swiss team.

Frédric Vasseur added that Alfa Romeo Sauber's staff had increased from 320 to 400 people and could perhaps climb to 450 this season.