Race - Japanese GP report: Sauber Ferrari

After a difficult qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix with starting positions at the back of the field, the Sauber F1 Team finished the race in 14th (Ericsson) and 20th (Nasr). Marcus Ericsson made a mistake, which cost him some positions. His teammate, Felipe Nasr, had to retire at the very end of the race due to an unidentified problem at the Sauber C34-Ferrari, which needs to be investigated.

Marcus Ericsson

“I had a good start. In the first stint especially, I had a reasonable pace running in the points in P10. Towards the end of this stint I was pushing a bit too much and had sort of a half spin in turn 13, so I lost some time there. That was a shame. We gambled a bit with the early second pit stop, knowing we would have a long last stint on the hard tyres. Then I was able to keep the train of cars behind me for many laps, but at the end the rear tyres could not hold on anymore. I think we had a better performance today, even if the result does not show that. However, there are still things to improve.”

Felipe Nasr

“The race started well. I gained a couple of positions at the start, and I had some good fights and overtaking manoeuvres in the early stint. Suddenly, I had a strange feeling in the car. Together with the team, we decided to stop the car and retire from the race. Now we have to look into it to understand the issue.”

Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal

“A disappointing weekend from which generally we expected more. After qualifying, we knew it would be difficult starting from these positions. Marcus and Felipe both had good starts, and there was a chance we could have finished the race in the points. Unfortunately it did not happen. Felipe’s car had an unidentified problem, which needs to be investigated. Marcus spun, which cost him some positions, but he kept on fighting.”