Mixed feelings for Sauber duo
It was a 'usual' Friday for the Sauber F1 Team during the first two practice sessions at the Buddh International Circuit. While Nico Hülkenberg showed better pace, Esteban Gutiérrez was not as satisfied with his C32 today.
The team however states that its running has been very helpful in gathering date to improve its performance on the soft tyre compound.
Nico Hulkenberg confirmed it was a good day of running for him, without any issues.
"We were able to work through the whole programme, so that was good", the German said. "We collected some good tyre data, which is always most important on a Friday. Regarding the performance on the medium tyres, I’m quite happy with the car. On the soft tyre compound I think, we still need to work a bit and find better solutions for the set up. On both the low and high fuel runs it wasn’t ideal. Tomorrow I think we will be able to push for the top ten.”
At the other side of the Sauber garage is Esteban Gutiérrez, and he seemed to be far less happy with his Friday, stating he is not happy with the car as it is set up.
“It was a very complicated day. We were trying to find out exactly where we stood on the track and it’s been quite challenging, because the pace is just not there, neither on the high or the low fuel. I am not happy with the way the car is handling and the way it feels. I’m not very confident at the moment. Obviously, I was trying to do my best to put everything together, but we are missing quite a lot. The most surprising thing was the lack of pace in the long runs. The degradation on the soft tyre was quite high. Also on the medium tyre I wasn’t able to find the pace. We have to look into that now and see how we can improve the car as well as myself.”
