F1 | Bottas and Zhou confident: “With the C44 we are looking for redemption”

2024 begins with a new identity for Sauber which, after the farewell to Alfa Romeo, starting from this season will be known as the “Stake F1 Team”. To reflect the collaboration with the new main sponsor, the livery has also been changed, which now features a greater presence of green that extends from the front wing to the rear.

What has not changed, however, is the driver pairing, which will once again consist of Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou for the third consecutive year. Both of the two standard bearers in fact arrived at the dawn of the regulatory revolution of 2022 and have accompanied the team in the last two seasons, also seeing the many internal changes with which it is preparing for Audi's arrival in 2026.

The team is continuing to invest to strengthen the staff and facilities available to the engineers, but before looking too far ahead there are still two years in which to try to move up the rankings after the disappointing ninth place in 2023. The C43 has proven to be very fluctuating during the season, suffering above all in qualifying. On several occasions, in fact, the drivers were able to defend themselves well in the race and in terms of tire management, but suffered a backward position in qualifying, given the difficulty in switching on the tyres. For 2024 the hope is also to resolve the shortcomings found in the fast corners, which the team began working on last year with revised wings and a new bottom.

The collaboration with Stake also represents a change of look for the team, but Valtteri Bottas is confident that these changes will also extend to the car, which sees several changes compared to last season. “Looks are important, but they are secondary to performance, obviously. In the end, if the car is fast and we are strong as a team, nothing else matters. This is what everyone on the team cares about. Of course, outside the garage, there is a lot to design and develop on the new identity and I want to take this opportunity to thank our new partners,” explained the Finn.

Setting objectives is always complicated, especially when the progress made by rivals during the winter is not known, but the minimum target is to improve on the ninth place in the constructors' standings obtained last season. In recent months the drivers have worked hard to understand the weak points of the 2023 car, such as the lack of overall grip and performance in high-speed corners.

“Being in our third season with a team, the goals must be high. My expectations are high, we absolutely need to make a good step forward and see progress compared to last year, a season in which, in all honesty, we did not achieve the objectives we had set ourselves. We have to fix it immediately, we have to do better,” added Bottas.

“The changes that have occurred in the team give me confidence. There are a lot of new resources in different departments of the team, we have a completely new identity, the new car looks different, and not just in terms of the livery. All this gives me the certainty that we are following a different path, which we hope is the right one. We know everyone is pushing, everyone is developing, but I'm happy to see what we have managed to achieve in the last few months with the new car. I would say I'm definitely more confident this season than last, just based on what I've seen around me.”

Sauber C44

Photo by: Sauber F1 Team

Zhou is also on the same wavelength, in his third year in Formula 1. The Chinese driver has shown signs of growth during 2023, but also little consistency, partly due to the difficulties of the single-seater. In the second half of the year the team failed to follow the progress of their rivals, so much so that both Williams and AlphaTauri took off in the standings, leaving Sauber in ninth place overall, ahead only of Haas. For this reason, behind the scenes we tried to give a new technical imprint to the single-seater.

“We've put a lot of effort into it since last season, especially in the second half of the year, after the summer break, to make sure we understood exactly where we needed to improve as a team and what the plan would be for the guys in the factory for the winter: now it's time to put it all together and take the car to the track. Expectations are high but, at the same time, we won't know where we stand until we start facing off against our rivals. However, the new car has been built with great effort and I look forward to driving it soon.”

“Driving a new car is something you look forward to every year. This year in particular, it's a car that Valtteri and I have put a lot of effort into, working with the team to identify the direction we should focus on. When you finally get out on the track, all the work done in the wind tunnel and in manufacturing pays off and you see what all the work has done.”

“It's the most awaited day before the first race of the year. I can't wait to drive in Barcelona on Friday, I'm sure it will be a completely different feeling and I hope it will be a very strong car,” added the Chinese driver, adding who will drive the C44 for the first time during a filming day in Spain later this week.