The end of the 2023 season is a very important turning point and renewal for Sauber with a view to the future. Goodbye to the Alfa Romeo sponsor who gave the team its name over the last few seasons, but not only. In 2024 Sauber will adopt a completely different car concept to the one used until last week.
An inevitable result, considering the results. Alfa Romeo Racing concluded the 2023 season in penultimate place in the Constructors’ World Championship with just 16 points, only 4 more than bottom-placed Haas F1.
A failure across the board and a considerable worsening of the standings compared to the previous season, when the Swiss team managed to bring home a more than honorable sixth place finish with 55 points taken home, tied with Aston Martin Racing.
This is why the change is necessary, and this is why Hinwil made the decision some time ago to create a completely new machine. There is no point in trying to evolve the 2023 one. Confirming the change of direction was Guan Yu Zhou, starting driver for next season too.
“We are all very happy that the season is over. We will all start from scratch next year. There have been so many changes in the team, in the final part and they have all been positive,” said the Chinese driver.
“I think in the races where we had the pace for the points, we managed to get them. Ultimately, the problem is that this year we didn’t have the right pace to get into the top 10. We didn’t have a fast enough car. That’s the problem. We’ve worked for a long time, obviously with the new concept, with the new car, so I hope next year will be better.”
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Zhou Guanyu, Alfa Romeo C43
Alfa Romeo, which as mentioned will return to Sauber in 2024 before starting the new adventure with Audi Sport in 2026, has worked hard during this season to bring functional developments, which could help the single-seater improve its performance. Almost everything that came from Hinwil, however, did not have the desired effect. This is why the team decided to abandon the path taken this year to start a totally new one.
“Throughout 2023 we made several updates, but none of them worked in the way we expected. We didn’t have any big advantages. So we will need a very different concept of the car and that’s what we learned this year.”
“In 2024 we need a completely new car. That’s the point, but it’s already been planned for a long time and that’s a good thing. We’ll have to make a lot of improvements if we want to bring home points next season. Everyone knows that at Hinwil. So we have to take a really big step forward. That’s why we need to have a completely new machine compared to the current one.”
“As for the 2024 car, it looks very interesting. So in that sense I have different hopes. But now we really need to work very hard on the car and try to have a very different 2024 from the season we just finished”, concluded Zhou .
#Sauber #forced #conceptually #car