Sauber Team Principal Frédéric Vasseur says the squad should target a return to Formula 1’s midfield group, but acknowledges that any recovery may not be swift.
Former Renault chief Vasseur arrived as Sauber’s new boss last month as a replacement for Monisha Kaltenborn, who departed amid disagreements with owners Longbow Finance.
Sauber, following years of competing in Formula 1’s midfield as an occasional podium challenger, finished 10th in 2014 and 2016, a spot it holds once more in 2017.
Should Sauber preserve 10th through until the end of the season, it would mark the first time in its history that the team has been last in the standings.
Vasseur is confident that Sauber has the resources and infrastructure to haul itself back into the midfield, but is cautious over signalling a time frame in which to do so.
“You have clearly on the grid three or four top teams, then a midfield group, [which is] changing race to race, P8 to P18 it’s pretty up and down,” he said.
“We have to target the midfield group, I don’t know if it will take months or more but we have to do it.
“I don’t have to transform the team to be honest, I think that you have to put everything in perspective.
“The team last year was in a quite tough situation on the financial side, the restructuring went well, for sure we have to improve, but the team has structure with very good engineers, very good technicians.
“For sure we have to work, we have to invest, we have to do a lot of things, but everyone is pushing in the same direction; we have to do it step-by-step and we’ll see.”
Vasseur also has business interests in Spark Racing Technology, which supplies Formula E, and ART Grand Prix, the junior single-seater operation, but he dismissed suggestions that he could be distracted from his duties with Sauber.
“I don’t have to divide my time, even if I kept some shares in my old businesses [Spark and ART],” he said.
“I’m not involved at all in the management or day-by-day and I’m fully committed to the Sauber project. It was already like this last year [at Renault].”
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