Friday: Tire problems for Sauber
For this first day of testing at the new Buddh International Circuit, the Sauber drivers encountered some difficulties with the tires. The hard tires do not work on the C30, while the soft ones have trouble reaching temperature and therefore providing enough grip. Kobayashi and Perez still hope to resolve these issues for the race on Sunday, although they expect a challenging weekend.
Kamui Kobayashi – 10th and 12th
The layout is really interesting, and I enjoyed driving on this track. But since it’s a new circuit, it’s slippery and there was a lot of dust, especially this morning. The first laps, it was almost like driving in the rain. Here, we have the Soft and Hard tires. With the hards, you can’t really drive here, while with the softs it’s very difficult to get them up to temperature and make them work properly, but that’s nothing compared to the hards.
Sergio Perez – 14th and 13th
The circuit is really nice, and I enjoyed driving on this new layout. As for the settings, it’s quite difficult because there are a lot of direction changes and many fast corners as well as slow corners. But we managed to complete our testing program and I feel we are heading in the right direction. The track was obviously improving throughout the day. The hard tires aren’t working, so it’s not easy to set up the strategy for the race. But everyone has to use it during a dry race.
