After years of F1’s scriptwriters limiting him to a supporting position, fairly than a essential character, Valtteri Bottas might hardly have had a greater opening chapter written for him after shifting to Sauber – then Alfa Romeo – in 2022.
Whereas Kevin Magnussen stole a lot of the highlight by ending one place forward of him within the opening spherical in Bahrain, Bottas’s sixth place was nonetheless an excellent end result for his opening race together with his new workforce. And with rookie workforce mate Zhou Guanyu claiming tenth on debut, Bottas was thrilled with the 9 factors scored by the workforce on the first try.
“It’s a good way to start out the season,” he stated. “Everybody did job and we’re stepping into the precise route.”
That opening race was speculated to set the tone for Sauber’s new period with its all-new driver line up. And it appeared to just do that, at first. By way of the primary 9 rounds of 2022, Bottas and Zhou mixed for over 50 factors to take a seat sixth within the constructors’ championship – which is the place they went on to complete after beating Aston Martin on a tiebreaker.
Nevertheless, over the past three seasons, Sauber’s standing has meandered from midfield mavericks to middling to moribund. Culminating in in right now, October eighth, marking one full calendar yr for the reason that final time that Sauber got here away from a grand prix with some extent.
Because the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix, when Bottas and Zhou scored a double factors end in eighth and ninth, neither of the pair have completed inside the highest ten even as soon as within the 23 grands prix and 5 dash races held since then. Over that very same interval, each one in all Sauber’s 9 rivals have scored at the very least 20 factors, with Williams having the next-lowest complete with 21, ten fewer than Haas.
After a constructive efficiency at Losail, Sauber’s type diversified wildly over the ultimate 5 rounds of 2023. Following a median exhibiting at Circuit of the Americas, each Bottas and Zhou reached Q3 in Mexico – solely the second time the pair had accomplished so over 2023. However regardless of a promising beginning place, each drivers light by means of the race to complete properly exterior of the factors.
That was adopted by a double Q1 elimination on the subsequent spherical at Interlagos, however the race itself regarded way more promising. That’s, till each automobiles suffered separate overheating issues that pressured them to desert the race to keep away from inflicting extreme energy unit harm to their automobiles. Additional frustration adopted in Las Vegas, the place seventh on the grid for Bottas was ruined by him being caught up on the first nook when Fernando Alonso spun in entrance of him and was hit by Sergio Perez behind, inflicting extreme harm that compromised his total race. The season then ended with a whisper fairly than a roar in Yas Marina, the place the workforce by no means regarded in rivalry for the highest ten all weekend.
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Coming into 2024 with the identical driver line up however a brand new title and a garish new luminous inexperienced livery, Sauber have been aiming to construct momentum over the approaching two seasons till they ultimately evolve into Audi’s manufacturing unit workforce in 2026. Nevertheless, the season has been extra like a kick within the head than a kick-start for the workforce’s new period and its daring, aggressive rebranding.
Most depressingly for Sauber, the opening race of the season in Bahrain stays the closest they’ve come to a prime ten end to this point. Regardless of each drivers being knocked out of Q1, Zhou rose as much as tenth within the race with a brilliantly executed technique earlier than being handed by Lance Stroll within the later laps. Zhou completed eleventh, the very best ending automotive a lap down and round 11 seconds away from factors.
Though the workforce had clear race tempo, Sauber have been hamstrung by a significant and embarrassing downside. After Bottas suffered a near-minute lengthy pit cease in Bahrain, Zhou confronted additional troubles within the second race in Jeddah. Because it turned out, the workforce wanted to utterly redesign their wheel nuts and wheel weapons and when there have been additional issues in spherical three in Australia, workforce administration apologised to each of their drivers for the continued issues – particularly as Bottas had been working tenth till a 30-second pit cease dropped him to the again of the sector and destroyed any chance of battling for factors.
Because the season progressed, Sauber slipped additional and additional away from not simply the entrance of the sector, however from their nearest rivals too. Except for a single Q3 look for Bottas in China, Saturdays proved soul-crushing fruitless for Sauber over the primary 19 rounds. Out of 36 makes an attempt, Bottas and Zhou mixed to flee Q1 simply eight instances between them – the worst document on the grid by a big margin. Whereas Sauber’s performances within the first 5 rounds noticed them a median of 1.12% slower than the quickest time within the highest session they reached, they’ve fallen to 1.3% off the last word tempo over the most recent 5 rounds.
Sauber’s growth of their C44 was additionally falling behind these groups closest to them they they wanted to beat to have any hop of factors. The workforce launched an improve bundle on the Hungarian Grand Prix, however solely Bottas had the advantage of it for that weekend and the next race in Spa-Francorchamps. Nevertheless, it appeared to have little have an effect on on Sauber’s outcomes – Bottas’s finishes of sixteenth and fifteenth over these two rounds equalling these of the 2 races previous to the workforce’s upgrades.
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Coming into the summer season break comfortably final within the championship, Sauber have been nonetheless the one workforce but to attain. Discovering some momentum for the second leg of the season could be crucial for his or her prospects of scoring some factors earlier than the yr’s finish. Nevertheless, the primary spherical again at Zandvoort would find yourself being “probably the most tough race of the season” by the workforce’s personal admission. In a race with no retirements, each Botta and Zhou sank away from the 18 automobiles in entrance of them, changing into the one workforce to complete two laps down on winner Lando Norris.
Since then, Sauber haven’t come any considerably nearer to breaking into the highest ten, regardless of the efforts of their drivers. Notably these of Bottas, who has usually been placing in stable performances which have been straightforward to miss given the shortage of tempo of his automotive. With solely six rounds remaining, Sauber are staring down the barrel of being the primary workforce to fail to attain some extent over a full season since Haas of their infamously underdeveloped 2021 automotive.
Sauber’s efforts haven’t been helped by the record-high reliability charge in 2024, that has seen the fewest retirements in any yr within the sport’s historical past on common. Zhou’s eleventh place in Bahrain and the workforce’s thirteenth place finishes in Monaco, Canada and Spain might simply have produced factors in earlier seasons with only a handful of retirements for automobiles forward.
With Audi having lofty ambitions for his or her long-anticipated entry into Formulation 1 in 2026, the German large will probably be hoping that their appreciable sources will probably be sufficient to tug the workforce additional up the sector than the place they sit simply over a yr faraway from their second of fact. However 2025 will probably be a transitional yr for the workforce, with Nico Hulkenberg becoming a member of and his workforce mate but to be confirmed.
Whoever joins Hulkenberg, and what influence Audi’s bespoke energy unit could have when the following laws revolution takes place, is a query for the long run. For now, the ultimate races for the partnership of Bottas and Zhou are unlikely to any extra productive, or much less irritating, than the remainder of the 2024 season.
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