Sauber starts dreaming of victory
Never before had Sauber been on the podium twice in a single season. The C31 is clearly a well-born machine, and within the Swiss team, they're starting to think about the laurels of victory.
Appetite comes with eating, says the old saying. Sauber certainly won’t prove it wrong. After placing a car on the podium for the second time in seven races, a first for the team, Peter Sauber starts dreaming of seeing a home driver on the podium, but this time on the top step.
« After seven races, it is clear that the C31 can be fast on any type of circuit. If we manage to exploit our potential to 100%, in other words, do everything correctly from Friday morning to Sunday evening, then we can achieve great things. In Malaysia, we came very close to victory. Before the start of the season, no one would have asked me if that was our goal. But today, after seven Grand Prix with seven different winners, so many things seem possible, » explains Peter Sauber.
Just like for Lotus, this will require an improvement in the C31’s performance on Saturday afternoon during qualifying.
« It is clearly our goal to improve in qualifying because if we manage to put the car higher on the grid, then we will be able to show the potential of the car even more, » comments Monisha Kalterborn.
However, this will probably not happen in a day. The challenge being to improve qualifying performance without impacting the C31’s behavior during the race.
« That’s the difficulty. I think we have a lot to do in the way we prepare for qualifying and there are enough areas that we need to improve as a team. If we manage to qualify better then we can achieve better results. »
The new podium achieved by Sergio Pérez in Canada brought smiles to the Sauber team, perhaps even more so than the second place obtained in Malaysia, which had been achieved under particular weather conditions.
« It’s a completely different feeling. There were different circumstances. It wasn’t a crazy race run in exceptional circumstances. We are very happy and I hope we won’t have to wait as long [as between Malaysia and Canada] for the next one, » concluded Kaltenborn.
