Sauber F1 Team: Disappointing F1 weekend
The team from Hinwil didn't expect it to be like this: The season opener for the 2016 Formula 1 World Championship in Melbourne was disappointing. Felipe Nasr finished 15th in the race at Albert Park, while Marcus Ericsson had to pit on the 39th lap because of vibrations on the left rear wheel of the Sauber C35-Ferrari. The cause of this is still being analyzed. The [...]
The weekend was not a good one for the Sauber F1 Team. Repeated rain made for difficult track conditions during the first free practice session of the Australian race weekend. As a result, most of the Sauber cars were parked in the pits. In the second free practice session, Sauber even decided not to drive at all. Marcus Ericsson completed a total of six laps, and teammate Felipe Nasr just seven.
But the new qualifying and tire regulations didn't make it easy for the team from Hinwil. In the end, the two drivers started Sunday's race from 16th (Ericsson) and 17th (Nasr) places. After a horror crash by Alonso, the race was briefly interrupted. Sauber driver Ericsson collected a drive-through penalty after the restart. The reason for this was that work was still being done on his car 15 seconds before he left the pit lane.
Marcus Ericsson explained what happened: "When the race was interrupted, I had trouble with an electric blanket before going out again in the pit lane. It took longer than usual to work on it and that's why I received a drive-through penalty. After the race resumed, I felt vibrations on the left rear wheel and returned to the pits."
The race wasn't easy for Felipe Nasr either: "It was a difficult race from start to finish. Compared to our rivals, we struggled with the race pace."
The team will spend the next few days intensively troubleshooting and analyzing the results from Australia in detail before taking to the grid in Bahrain on April 3.
www.sauberf1team.com
Photo: Sauber F1 Team Archive
