Sauber hoped for more in today's qualifying
After the weather conditions on Friday had only allowed some dry running on Saturday morning, neither of the Sauber F1 Team drivers was happy with the balance of the Sauber C30-Ferrari in qualifying for the Korean Grand Prix. Kamui Kobayashi qualified 14th and Sergio Pérez came 17th.
Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber C30-Ferrari (Chassis 02 / Ferrari 056):
3rd Practice: 14th/1:40.005 min (soft tyres)
Qualifying: 14th/ 1.38.775 min in Q2 (new super soft tyres)
“We have had a difficult time here so far. Fourteenth on the grid is obviously not what we were hoping for, and we are quite far away from our competitors. The main problem is still a lack of grip, which is caused by a combination of factors. My lap as such in Q2 was okay, I can’t complain about traffic and didn’t make a mistake. It was pretty much the best I could achieve today. However, the race tomorrow will be a different story. Because of the changing weather from Friday, when it was wet, to today, we have very little experience of running on this circuit with the tyres we have here in dry conditions with high fuel loads. Regarding this, we will only learn more tomorrow and I hope it plays in our hands.”
Sergio Pérez, Sauber C30-Ferrari (Chassis 03 / Ferrari 056):
3rd Practice: 15th/1:40.030 min (super soft tyres)
Qualifying: 17th/ 1:39.443 in Q2 (new super soft tyres)
“For me this was a very bad qualifying. After our only dry running was this morning and also for me the track is new, I am not happy with the balance and the set-up of the car. I didn’t feel at all confident in the car. My final lap in Q2 was particularly bad because I hadn’t got the brake balance right and had the fronts locking. I now have a bad grid position and I think we should go for an aggressive race strategy.”
Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering:
“Today it was about doing everything we couldn’t achieve yesterday in terms of preparation. We tried to focus on getting the most out of the qualifying. The result is definitely not what we were hoping for, and we are too far behind our direct competitors. Now we have to work to make a recovery in the race and get into the points.”
