Sauber Finds Silver Linings Despite Point-less Streak; Bottas and Zhou Eye Improvements

Clean team sees "encouraging signal" but Valtteri Bottas yet to score

Clean team's head remains hopeful

Sauber is confident that they have narrowed the distance to their closest competitors, even though they have yet to earn any points at the F1 Italian Grand Prix.

Valtteri Bottas secured the 16th position at the Monza race, finishing two spots in front of his teammate Guanyu Zhou.

Valtteri Bottas, Guanyu Zhou, and Logan Sargeant (who no longer has his position with Williams) are the sole Formula 1 drivers in the 2024 season who haven't scored any points. Additionally, Sauber stands as the only team yet to secure a point.

Sauber’s pair of drivers started from the back of the grid, prompting the team to equip Bottas with hard tires for an extended initial stint. However, their strategy proved to be mostly ineffective.

Nevertheless, team spokesperson Alessandro Alunni Bravi remains hopeful.

He stated that although the final standings appear similar to past races, there were encouraging aspects in the team's performance.

"Both drivers effectively handled their hard and medium tires, which enabled us to stick to our pre-race strategy, keeping wear and tear in check."

“Certainly, it's insufficient to compete for points due to our overall speed deficit. However, the low-drag package introduced at Monza and the adjustments made for qualifying enhanced the car's balance, providing Valtteri and Zhou an opportunity to compete.

"We have quite a distance to cover before we can compete for points, but it's crucial to recognize that we've made progress by narrowing the gap with our main rivals today – this is a positive development that deserves to be highlighted."

Bottas commented on the race, stating, "Overall, it was a straightforward and calm race for us. We opted for a one-stop strategy, beginning with the hard tires, in an attempt to try something new and rely on the possibility of a timely Safety Car intervention."

"Sadly, things didn’t go as planned for us, but I believe it was worthwhile to attempt it."

Reflecting on the way the race played out, I have no regrets about my actions: we managed to move up a few spots and reached 16th place through our own efforts, but that was truly the best outcome we could achieve.

"We didn't make significant strides in our speed. Although our weekend began positively, we struggled to maintain that momentum and saw little improvement. Nonetheless, this weekend was certainly better than our experience at Zandvoort. We have considerable work to do to advance further, which will be our focus as we prepare for the consecutive races in Baku and Singapore."

Zhou remarked, "Our speed today wasn't sufficient to compete nearer to the points, particularly in a straightforward race without any disruptions or major surprises."

"Although our speed has definitely improved since last weekend in Zandvoort, we are still lagging behind our main rivals in terms of overall performance."

Over the weekend, there has been progress in our performance during single laps. However, it's evident that we need to optimize the car's performance and have a perfect weekend to achieve the best outcome.

Instead of depending on luck, our team concentrates on diligent effort to shave off those critical fractions of a second, aiming to move closer to the top ten.

Sauber is set to transform into Audi next year, although they will keep their existing identity for now.

Nico Hulkenberg has secured a contract with Haas for the 2025 season, putting pressure on Bottas and Zhou to fight for their positions and avoid being dropped from Formula 1 entirely.

The only teams with open driving positions for the next season are Sauber and RB.

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