Sauber’s sorry start to the season

Sauber have had a torrid start to their 2010 campaign, with only one finish in the first three races – even the new teams have done better than that. It’s not like the car is blisteringly fast when it’s on track either, all of that pre-season pace seems to have melted away and they look like they may soon be fighting with the newcomers.
It’s all a far cry from the hype that surrounding Peter Sauber’s return to the sport and the signing of the young Japanese driver Kamui Kobayashi from the exiting Toyota team. I guess that they should get some credit from just making it to the grid at all as they were technically the last team to be given the go ahead. That said everyone at the team has enough F1 experience to know what needs to be done.
Both cars suffered the same fate in Malaysia, pneumatic issues [...]

What happened to BMW Sauber Ferrari in Bahrain?

In pre-season testing the Sauber cars were quick, they weren’t the fastest but they showed a turn of pace that was going to challenge for those last points positions and maybe the big four on occasion. However they turn up at Bahrain and were nowhere – were they running light in testing, and if they were why?
Some of the problem may come from the fact that the weather was so different at the two venues that tyre wear would have been very different and the cars would have required a completely different setup. Which leads into the first option – the car is very difficult to setup. This would explain some of the lack of pace as they have much less time at a GP than in testing to optimise the settings, and know the trade offs for the race.
Another option is that the team were simply running light in [...]

Sauber launch

Peter Sauber’s team unveiled their new car yesterday and though it got little press I think it’s a more exciting proposition than the Renault one. Peter Sauber describes himself as a reluctant owner but he’s always put in the effort with F1 and sold BMW a pretty handy team.
The new car looks kind of bare without any of the customary sponsorship but then the Brawn looked like that last year, it sports a higher nose than some of the other cars but retains the long fin of the McLaren. I will watch with keen interest how Sauber do this year though barring a huge surprise I don’t expect much from them really.
With Kamui Kobayashi and Pedro de la Rosa driving for them this season they really do have the experience and the excitement though I’m not sure how de la Rosa got the nod ahead of Nick Heidfeld but [...]

New Boys

The 2010 season sees four new teams appear on the grid, along with the return of Peter Sauber who takes back the BMW team. Indeed the manufacturer defection goes even further as Renault have sold a large chunk to an investment firm, with only Mercedes coming into F1 we’re looking at a season full of independent teams. The Final list for 2010 is:

Mercedes
Red Bull
McLaren
Ferrari
Sauber
Williams
Renault
Force India F1
Toro Rosso
USF1*
Campos*
Virgin*
Lotus F1*

* = new team
I’ve said before that I think the old teams will have a tremendous advantage going into this year where not many of the regulations have changed, not to mention the experience of the teams at these new organisations. Presumably they have experienced staff with Toyota shutting up shop and Brawn laying off half their staff at the beginning of the year but they won’t have all been racing together before. The Mercedes and Sauber teams will also have restructuring to [...]