Bottas begs for upgrades as Sauber’s struggles continue
A frustrated Valtteri Bottas is urging Sauber to “get some new parts” on its car as soon as possible to improve the Swiss outfit’s fortunes.
Last weekend’s British Grand Prix was another pointless effort for Bottas and teammate Zhou Guanyu who remain the only drivers in the F1 field, along with Williams’ Logan Sargeant, without a single championship point to their name this season.
Bottas, who qualified P16 after failing to make Q2, concluding race day 15th. While acknowledging Sauber’s efficient handling of the tricky weather conditions at Silverstone, he was frank about his car’s lack of pace.
“[It was] definitely not an easy day with sometimes being on the slicks in the wet – [there were] some wet sections on track,” he explained after the Grand Prix.
“But I think we made actually the right calls today – we didn’t do any unnecessary pit stops.
“But, in any condition, we just didn’t have the pace today to challenge the cars in front. That’s what we need to keep working on and get some new parts in the car, and hopefully that’s going to be sooner rather than later.”
Bottas wasn't shy about pushing for a timeline on the upgrades.
“There should be [upgrades]. I can’t promise there will be in Budapest, but I would hope so. That’s what we need.”
Zhou qualified ahead of Bottas, launching his race from 14th on the grid, but a double gamble – a start on the soft compound and a premature switch to the intermediate rubber – backfired, leaving the Chinese driver well down the order in 18th position at the checkered flag.
“We started on the softs and the rain just came too late, so by then the tyre was kind of done after 10 laps,” Zhou explained.
“Then we tried a gamble for inters, obviously it didn’t really work out. At least we [gave] it a try, and after that I think the race was kind of over for myself.”
While encouraged by a slight improvement in car performance, Zhou echoed Bottas' call for action.
“Definitely today is probably not the day we hoped for, but in general the car, the pace I think is back to where we expected, so [I’m] feeling more comfortable in all conditions,” the 25-year-old added.
“Let’s see, there’s still a lot of work in order to fight back in the points, but it’s going to be obviously a long journey of course to get there. But hopefully we can get it soon fixed and improve together.”
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