After 14 rounds in 2024, only one team has failed to register a single point and that perfectly sums up how dreadful Sauber’s season has been to date.
After a promising start to the current regulation cycle (predominantly due to being one of few teams to make weight at the start of 2022) whereby Sauber scored 39 points in the first seven rounds of the 2022 season, the team has only scored 33 points in the 47 rounds since.
Any sign of having the pace to fight in the midfield during the early races of 2024 was marred by pitstop issues leaving Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas powerless to avert 30-second stints in the box.
By the time the Hinwil-based squad had rectified its pitstop woes, the rest of the field had left it behind on the stopwatch.
Sauber is in a period of limbo as it awaits Audi’s takeover in 2026 and there’s been no shortage of drama off the track.
A search for a driver to partner with the incoming Nico Hulkenberg in 2025 continues and the chiefs in charge of implementing Audi’s F1 vision have been cut from two to one with Andreas Seidl and Oliver Hoffmann displaced in favour of ex-Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix.
Bottas said that Binotto’s appointment is “a bit of a reset again. It’s not a secret that when there’s a new leadership, it will always take a bit of time, first of all.
“Mattia needs to know what are the weaknesses, what are the strengths, what are the priorities for short- and long-term improvements, and that’s going to take a bit of time.”
For a team just 18 months away from a major upheaval from an independent to a works outfit, change still appears to be too slow at Sauber and that is why it finds itself in the position its in.
Zhou believes Audi’s off-track shenanigans have distracted Sauber from the task at hand, meanwhile, Bottas is ill-equipped to prove his worth to potential 2025 suitors with a poor car underneath them.
Speaking exclusively to Motorsport Week, Zhou said: “I think there’s two years that we need to sacrifice a little bit, and this year is probably one of the years that It’s not been easy because while you’re moving things around, you know, it’s getting a little bit delayed and postponed.”
The remainder of 2024 is unlikely to improve for Sauber, but it must prevent falling further from the rest of the competition if it isn’t to repeat its troubles next season, its last before Audi comes into play.
