Sauber ’paying for’ exhaust ban saga - boss

Sauber is paying the price for its decision to scrap development of the blown exhaust system in 2011.

That is the claim of team owner and boss Peter Sauber, recalling a few months ago when the FIA decided to immediately ban the technology.

"Our system doesn’t work properly," he told the Sonntagsblick newspaper. "When they tried to ban it all in Barcelona, we decided to stop with all the expensive development."

Ultimately, however, the lobbying of the top teams won the day and exhaust blowing will now only be banned at the very end of the season.

"We are paying for it now," said Sauber, whose cars qualified just 15th (Sergio Perez) and 17th (Kamui Kobayashi) at Monza.

Saturday’s speed trap highlighted the problem: with not enough downforce underneath the car and with the strong Ferrari engine on board, the C30 was the fastest in a straight line at Monza at close to 350kph.