Bottas wasn’t able to turn a good grid position into a result in Brazil
Sauber team representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi admits that the chaotic wet Sao Paulo GP represented the “greatest opportunity” that the Swiss Formula 1 outfit has had to score points this season.
Valtteri Bottas qualified 11th at Interlagos, and the Finn was ninth on the grid for the start as both Alex Albon and Lance Stroll were missing.
However rather than convert that into a priceless points finish Bottas slipped down the order due to the car’s inherent lack of pace and a struggle to get temperature into the tyres.
The team even made the right call under the VSC, keeping Bottas on track – but while others who made that choice made the podium the Finn slipped back to 13th at the flag. His team mate Zhou Guanyu finished 15th and last.
Sauber has yet to score a point in 2024, and remains last in the World Championship.
“It’s very difficult to say and to admit, but I think we lost the greatest opportunity that we had this season to score points,” Alunni Bravi told me. “Because of the excellent qualifying session done by Valtteri, and the position that was a P9 for us at the start.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t have the pace to keep the position. The biggest problem for us was to have proper temperatures in the tyres at the beginning of each stint.
“And this, of course, jeopardised all the opportunities and the possibility for Valtteri and Zhou to defend and attack any position.
“We have seen in the second part of each stint that the situation was improving, and when the tyres were working in the correct range of temperature, we were competitive.
“But this doesn’t cancel the big disappointment, because it was a very tough day for us. Of course, we have mixed feelings, qualifying was very positive, especially with Valtteri. But at the end what matters are points, and the race result on Sunday.”
Alunni Bravi admitted that it the outcome was even more frustrating after the team made a good strategy call.
“The only opportunity to recover position was to wait,” he said. “According to the weather forecast, the rain after this intense period that led to most of the car pitting would decrease significantly.
“So we opted to stay out with Valtteri and to wait for a possible red flag, because the situation was extremely critical. So we remained on track on inters, and as predicted that the red flag came out, because the conditions were simply too critical.
“So that was the right call. We recovered four positions, so Valtteri was P12, we could change tyres, and avoid the pit stop.
“But this was not enough, because at the restart, the pace was not there. So Valtteri immediately lost other positions. And for Zhou, it was even more difficult, because starting from qualifying, he didn’t have confidence with the car.
“We went to extreme wets, because for him, it was impossible to drive the car, and then he simply was never able to attack. So a difficult race in a difficult season.”
Regarding Alpine’s double podium he said: “I think that we need to pay tribute to what they’ve done. They were exactly on the same strategy as us. But of course, they showed have more performance.
“And I think that we knew that the track, in that condition, could bring us opportunity, and they’ve been able to grab everything and to maximise everything.
“I think this is what we need, a good result for the motivation of the people, because we have people that are working really hard back in Hinwil and at trackside, and they deserve like Alpine to have good results. It’s never easy to have such a season.
“We keep developing. We are we will have upgrades coming for the remaining three races. We don’t give up, but we have to do more.”
Adam Cooper F1 