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Sauber's team principal Frederic Vasseur says that the team has made a huge step forward since the beginning of the season. The Swiss outfit entered the 2018 campaign coming off the back of two difficult years, where it scored just seven points in 41 races.
However, the Hinwil-based squad has raced many more laps inside the top ten this year, and has racked up 18 points in the opening 12 races. With many predicting a difficult year following pre-season testing, Vasseur believes his team is now on the way back up.
“Yes, I think we are on a good path,” he said. “If you compare with the beginning of the season and the first part of the season - not only Melbourne - but I think we improved a lot, more than 1.5 percent compared to the front of the field. It’s a huge step forward for us now.
“But I know perfectly that the more you move forward the more the steps are difficult. It’s good to have expectation because it’s the best way to put some pressure on the team to put some pressure on the guys, on the drivers - and this is the key point for the team.”
2019 will see a shake-up in the aerodynamic regulations, with the main change being simpler front wings with fewer elements. Vasseur thinks that Sauber has a big opportunity to make gains on the mid-field pack next year rather than in the remainder of the 2018 season.
"If all the other teams are continuing to push and develop it will be more and more difficult but we also know that the big gain for us will be more next year than this year," he said.
“Honestly, if we finish the championship eighth, ninth or seventh, it’s not a huge difference. There’s a huge change to the regulation next year, we have a great opportunity and we have to consider this as a real challenge,” Vasseur added.
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C. Sainz jr
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Replies (3)
Login to replyKean
Posts: 692
He's right, the difference in earning between 7th and 9th is only 7 million dollars, which isn't alot of money relatively speaking (that is at least according to the 2016 earning list, may have changed some). Get this, according to that same list, 34.7% of f1's revenue is divided equally among the teams another 34.7% is divided according to where you finish in the championship, and the remaining 30.6% is earmarked to 5 teams, regardless of where they finish in the championship Ferrari gets 105 million, Mercedes and Red Bull gets 74 million, McLaren gets 32 million and Williams gets 10 million.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Yeah they really need to even out the earnings further.
Hombibi
Posts: 137
Pretty impressive resurrection that is, well done Sauber, way to go! Now get those Swiss engineers tinkering on that car!