Disappointing end to disappointing season for Sauber
The final race of the 2010 season didn’t add any points to the team’s tally. Kamui Kobayashi, who started 12th, finished 14th after bad luck with traffic and a strategy that didn’t work out. Nick Heidfeld, who started 14th, crossed the line in 11th.
Nick Heidfeld: 11th
C29.03 / Ferrari 056
“My start was okay, and I was able to pass Robert (Kubica). But then I lost that position when I had to go round Michael (Schumacher) and Vitantonio (Liuzzi) after their accident. After that I was stuck in traffic, and we had agreed before the race that in this case I would come in and change tyres straight away. It was a very good move, even better than expected as it put me three positions further up. I was then able to close the gap to Felipe (Massa), but I had no chance to overtake him. It would have been nice to score in the last race of this season, but it didn’t work out. Congratulations to the new world champion Sebastian (Vettel)!”
Kamui Kobayashi: 14th
C29.04 / Ferrari 056
“I am disappointed with the result, as I definitely wanted to score in the final race of the season. I did what I could, but there was no way to overtake. My car was okay, but we had bad luck with our strategy. It didn’t work out with some cars stopping early when the Safety Car was out after the accident. I had a good start gaining two positions, but later I could never go at my full pace, as I was always stuck. I also want to congratulate Sebastian (Vettel) for his great success!”
Peter Sauber, Team Principal: “First of all congratulations to Red Bull and Sebastian (Vettel) who drove an excellent race today and deserved to win the title. Unfortunately, we finished the final race of the season outside the points. Both drivers did a very good job. Nick was able to keep the Williams and the Force India behind him. Kamui was unfortunate to get stuck behind Rubens Barrichello for almost the whole race. This was the end of a very challenging season for us. We had a very bad start. After eight races we had just a single championship point because the car wasn’t fast enough and, even more importantly, not reliable, which was very unusual for our team. We finished the season with 44 points. This is certainly not satisfying for us, but it was not possible to make up for the losses from the earlier races. Nevertheless there are also positive aspects to review: Since James Key joined us we have significantly improved on the technical side. Furthermore Kamui has shown a great development during the season, so I am very happy he drives for our team. I want to thank the entire team for their efforts, which goes for the people at the race track as well as for those in Hinwil, and especially for our drivers Kamui, Nick and Pedro.”
James Key, Technical Director: “It’s a little bit disappointing not to get into the points, because this would have been a nice way to finish the season. It was a fairly hectic race with the early safety car, during which time we decided against coming in, but it looks like the people that came in were able to capitalize. We brought Nick in at what we felt was about the right time for the change from option to prime tyres. He drove an excellent race, but was stuck in traffic for most of the time. We left Kamui out to see whether he could make up time after Rubens Barrichello pitted, because we were held up by him. But by the time Rubens came in we had lost too much time to the people behind, and unfortunately Kamui came out behind him again. So he ended up in traffic as well, which was frustrating for him. This meant we finished outside the points. Thanks to the team and the drivers for the season and for pushing so hard, particularly during the difficult start of the season. Congratulations to Sebastian (Vettel) and Red Bull.”
