Kick Sauber staff consultant Alessandro Alunni Bravi praised his staff efforts for fixing the pit cease points that hindered the Hinwil-based outfit within the opening races of the season.
The Swiss outfit began the 2024 F1 season with a brand-new identitiy. Previous title sponsor Alfa Romeo left the Sauber-run organisation, and the staff has returned to its authentic title, including a brand new sponsor, Kick to it.
However, the brand new season didn’t begin in a approach that the staff hoped for. The new automotive lacks pace in comparison with the groups that Sauber was in a battle with, and pit stops have additionally heavilty influenced their leads to the opening phases of the season.
In the opening three races – Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Melbourne – Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu misplaced a major period of time during their stops with Sauber unable to finish tyre modifications correctly.
The concern was a brand new {hardware} that the staff designed for 2024 with the intention to obtain faster stops, however they had been unable to make them dependable. However, Sauber launched tweaks to the {hardware} in current races which now seem to have solved the vital points.
Kick Sauber staff consultant Alessandro Alunni Bravi took delight from the improvement: : “On a constructive notice: all three of our pit-stops right this moment have been our quickest during all the season to this point.
“They had been quick and constant – one thing necessary because it reveals that we will react and enhance. Our most necessary goal for the upcoming races is to enhance in every space to convey us again into the combat for factors.”
Despite the improvement within the pit lane, Sauber gave the impression to be the slowest staff in Monaco with Bottas and Zhou unable to problem for beginning positions that would have enabled them to combat for factors on a monitor the place overtaking is at a premium.
Expanding on the Monaco spherical, the Italian added: “It was a processionary race with a purple flag after lap one, the place all drivers besides Sargeant determined to vary their tyres – finally leading to no extra pit stops being anticipated. We tried our greatest to permit our drivers to assault the vehicles in entrance of them, however at a monitor like Monaco, the place overtaking potentialities are near zero, positions for a lot of the subject had been locked in.
“We tried a unique technique with Valtteri, who drove an aggressive race, as we pitted him on lap 15 from the medium compound to laborious tyres, which allowed him to have a powerful tempo and overtake Sargeant to safe P13 – the utmost for right this moment.
“Zhou experienced a more difficult race: he was stuck behind Sargeant until we decided to have him swap position with Valtteri. During the last segment of the race, he lost his position to the Williams under blue flags, before we pitted him onto the soft compound in case of a late Safety Car that didn’t happen,” Bravi concluded.
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