Another misstep
Finishing a race in the points: a mission not yet accomplished by Sauber at the end of the ninth round of the world championship in Canada, with the Swiss team remaining the only one in the Constructors’ standings chasing a top ten finish. In a GP made even more complex by the changing weather conditions and from departure from the pit lane for both drivers (due to the replacement of the rear wings with specifications different from the original ones under the Parc Fermé regime), Valtteri Bottas did not go beyond the 13th place final, with his teammate Zhou Guanyu 15th and last among the drivers to reach the finish line.
Bottas’ honesty
Another Sunday marked therefore by difficulties on the track and a lack of competitiveness, as underlined by the former Mercedes driver: “It wasn’t an easy day – analyzed the Finnish – we made a set-up change to make the car more suitable for these weather conditions, and I think it was the right thing to do: as always, it was nice to test it, because it allowed us to release a little more load aerodynamic. Staying out on the intermediate tires was the right move. We tried to be aggressive later on the slicks, but maybe we went one lap too early. In the end we didn’t manage to get into the top ten and I don’t think we could have achieved much more at our pace: our progress on the track was more due to mistakes made by other cars or retirement. Looking at the future, we have to keep working to bring updates to make our car faster. We have bigger updates planned and I’m sure this is the key to moving forward. Barcelona is also close and we know we have work to do: getting back to Q2 will be the first step, and then we will work from there.”
Still problems
Much more concise in Guanyu’s comments, far from finding the right feeling with the Ferrari-powered C44: “It turned out to be another difficult race for us, as well as what was overall a busy weekend. Even though there was a lot going on during the race, it was a lonely race for me, especially in the second half. As in Munich, I didn’t feel too comfortable with the car, especially in terms of braking and cornering. Coming from a weekend like this, we will have to sit down and investigate our problems, to address them before Barcelona.”
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