“It's always nice to see the presentation of a new car. But the C44 project was already advanced before I joined the team.” Words and music by James Key, technical director of Sauber, or rather, Stake F1 Team, which today presented its new single-seater for the 2024 Formula 1 World Championship.
Those of the former McLaren and Toro Rosso engineer are not thrown away words. Indeed, they are the first ones spoken. In such a way as to underline the fact that if the C44 does not bring home the desired results, it would certainly not be fair to attribute it to him.
“I'm halfway through the gestation of the project, so I have to give credit to the team, who did a fantastic job,” Key continued. “Clearly building the C44 is not the work of a single person.”
In short, his influence will arrive during the season, with the updates for the C44, but his objective will mainly be to focus on next year's C45, his first single-seater since he arrived in Hinwil, and the 2026 single-seater, i.e. the first to take the name of Audi with the new technical regulations.
Returning to the C44, Key said: “This is a car that is virtually all new compared to last year, with some areas similar to last year at the rear. There are a lot of mechanical changes. Some of these don't apply. they see, while others are obvious.”
Sauber C44
Photo by: Sauber F1 Team
“The front suspension is completely new. An ambitious difficult project for a team of our size. There are many changes from an aerodynamic point of view, of course, as could be expected given that this remains the main area of development. So, in Overall, the C44 is a very different single-seater than last year.”
Key makes no secret that he expects a better performing car than last season's, given the progress the team believes it has made on the C44 over the winter.
“Our fans can expect a new look of the car not only because of the new livery, but also because of the shape of the car itself. We can expect a faster car than last year because we have made good progress over the course of the year. “winter. How good this pace is will also depend on our rivals. We hope to have overtaken them.”
“We will see something more in the near future, but we can expect a very hungry team, where everyone is eager to make progress. We have a very clear plan on how we want to approach the season, we have worked hard to put ourselves in the best possible conditions to get on track with a machine that we will already know well and a clear plan.”
“You will certainly see an ambitious team, with a new car that has a lot of potential and a deep desire to progress from where we ended up last year,” concluded the Sauber team's technical director.
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