FP1 & FP2 - Singapore GP report: Sauber Ferrari

For the practice sessions for the Singapore Grand Prix the Sauber F1 Team was able to mainly run through the planned programme, but was limited by an unexpected problem. Issues with the energy management resulted in limitations during the long run. The team is now working on a solution together with the engine manufacturer.

Esteban Gutiérrez

“I lost a lot of track time in the first practice session because of the problem with the control unit. In the second practice session we tried to get the maximum out of the programme. Overall, I did not have a good feeling for the car in the afternoon. I believe that we made a small step forward on the aero side. However, on this track the aerodynamics are not essential, and therefore we cannot see a clear benefit straight away. We have a lot of work to do for the rest of the weekend.”

Adrian Sutil

“Both practice sessions were interesting, and it was lot of fun driving on this track. I was able to run many laps without major incidents. However, we could not charge the battery perfectly because we had some issues with the power unit. Due to the restricted energy, we had less power during the long runs. Regarding the new aero parts, I cannot really judge so far, but the engineers are going to analyse the impact as we tested several modifications. We have to work on the set-up of the car as the balance is not ideal yet, and I think we can surely improve it.”

Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering

“Although we lost quite some time when we had to change the control unit on Esteban’s car, we were able to go through most of our programme. However, we have some more work to do with the energy management. We ran into some unexpected limitations which have no effect on our qualifying speed, but which affected our long run performance. Together with our partner we are working on a solution. There are some ideas, and we hope to get improvements for the remainder of the weekend.“