Sauber F1 Team Bahrain Qualifying review 05.04.2014: Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix - Qualifying - Saturday, 05.04.2014 Weather: dry, 28-24°C air, 42-27°C track

Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix - Qualifying - Saturday, 05.04.2014




Weather: dry, 28-24°C air, 42-27°C track

In the night qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix, the third race of the 2014 Formula One World Championship, Esteban Gutiérrez was able to make it into Q2, finishing 15th, while Adrian Sutil had to abort his final quick lap due to traffic and ended up 18th.



Esteban Gutiérrez (car number 21):

Sauber C33-Ferrari (Chassis 01/Ferrari)
Qualifying: 15th in Q2 (1:35.891 min / soft tyres)
3rd practice: 14th (1:37.325 min / soft tyres / 18 laps)


“I am satisfied with the result of qualifying today. We managed to put together some fast laps. I want to thank my team; they did a good job in finding the right balance from my feedback. We need to look forward and still work hard, because we are missing quite a lot of pace to be where we want to be.


I have a great team and we are all working hard. Today it was the optimum I could get out of the car on my last really good lap. With the lower temperatures the tyres are behaving in a different way. I feel positive for the race tomorrow, but with our pace we cannot be in the top ten at the moment. However, I am sure if we work consistently we can get some points in the future.”



Adrian Sutil (car number 99):

Sauber C33-Ferrari (Chassis 03/Ferrari)
Qualifying: 18th in Q1 (1:36.840 min / soft tyres)
3rd practice: 15th (1:38.089 min / soft tyres / 24 laps)


“Today there was not much to achieve. However, making it into Q2 could have been possible. Unfortunately, we are still too slow on the straights, and I am personally struggling with the fact the car is overweight. I only had one lap, as I had traffic on my second run. This resulted in aborting my final lap.


We have to concentrate on tomorrow, and we need to be better in the race. However, it will be difficult to finish in the points. We are working on the car, and I think when we get to Europe we will be able to move further up the grid. I am looking forward to that and I will put all my efforts into it.”



Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal:

“With our performance we are not where we want to be, and this is being reflected in the qualifying result on a track which, as well as everything else, has traditionally been quite a challenge for our team. We will do our best in the race, but first and foremost we will focus on implementing a development step which will take us forward.”



Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering:

“In FP3 Adrian did some runs on high fuel in order to recover from the time he lost yesterday. In qualifying our goal was to make it to Q2, which worked out for Esteban, but not for Adrian, who had to abort his final quick lap due to traffic. This qualifying result reflects more or less where we realistically are.


Technically everything went according to plan, but the limiting factor is our performance, which we have to work on. As this track is quite heavy on fuel consumption, fuel management might, therefore, be a factor in the race.“      
 

Hanspeter Brack, Marleen Seilheimer, photo Sauber