The two Saubers saw off the finish line in Singapore, still without a point on the clock

For the eighth time this season, both blue and yellow single-seaters crossed the checkered flag together. This achievement remains the only positive point of the weekend for the Sauber team, which can almost regret not doing better in Singapore this time. For his 50th Grand Prix start, Marcus Ericsson had high hopes, confirmed after a good first stint. For one lap, the tenth, the Swede was even in the top 10 before pitting for a new set of ultra-softs. The rest was more challenging, as the ex-Caterham driver tells us below:

« This result is obviously disappointing after starting from fourteenth place. The start was okay, and after that, I managed to climb up to 11th place before the safety car came out. After the restart, I had a decent pace, which allowed me to attack. That’s when we took a risk with a three-stop strategy, which ultimately didn’t work out. I encountered traffic during my second stint, and I lost a lot of time at that moment. Now we need to bounce back in Malaysia. »

Better Sunday, however, for Felipe Nasr on the other side of the garage, who settled for a two-stop strategy. The Brazilian driver even shared the track with Vettel for 5 laps (between the eighth and the thirteenth lap) without letting him pass, despite having the same Ferrari engine behind him.

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A first stop on the 17th lap allowed him to switch to a new set of the same color tires, before finally putting on the soft tires on the 35th lap, until the finish. This low number of stops at least allowed him to pass a few drivers and have a clearer track, still quite far from the Top 10.

« This race was a real challenge. » explained the native of Brasilia once he got out of his C35. « The start wasn’t lucky for me, with that car coming to a halt on my side of the track. I lost two positions with that incident. Finishing thirteenth from there is a good reward keeping in mind that I started from the sixteenth place. The two-stop strategy worked well, I think this result is the best possible for my race. Now, I look forward to the next race in Malaysia. »

Same message from Monisha Kaltenborn, who defended the performance of her two protégés: « Starting from the fourteenth and sixteenth positions gave us the right to hope for a better result. It’s unfortunate that Marcus’s strategy didn’t pay off, but that’s also because he lost time with the cars in front of him. Felipe, on his side, performed well by maximizing his strategy. »

Despite these few self-motivations, the team based in Hinwil will still have to roll up their sleeves to earn the first point of their modest 2016 season. They can at least recall the good memories of Malaysia, where in 2012, Sergio Pérez delivered a splendid race at the wheel of a competitive C31, which saw him step onto the second place of the podium after challenging Fernando Alonso for the win. It would certainly take more than a single miracle to see such a performance four years later…