[Aswdwdfg]

From dark horse to fighting for the wooden spoon of the existing team. What went wrong?

[cristmiff]

so, they had us all fooled. what we thought was real pace was low fuel running to get sponsors. To be fair to peter sauber, i can see why he did it but i genuinly thought the sauber had more pace. shame.

[textarchive]

All fooled? When Mark Hughes had it as one of his huge insights in Autosport a couple of weeks ago about their long run pace that was the final nail in the coffin for them being quick this year.

[xanonlinexan]

clearly running light to gain sponsors in testing i think, although they were moving forward in the early part of the race, both Koby and Pedor made a few passes which is more than most managed, so maybe their long pace was alright, we'll never know seeing as both cars broke

[Aswdwdfg]

They had to start with a car that wasn't massively underweight?

Yeah, shame. I thought we were long past stupid fake testing times.

Thanks Peter Sauber - you've screwed my FGP team

[SerycegeBunny]

I think only part of their poor performance can be put down to running lighter in testing. Several teams have ended up slower than expected and that list includes Williams. Bahrain is as different an environment as you can expect from cold wintry European testing tracks, I think a few teams were caught out with their tyre setups in the massively different temperature encountered in Bahrain.

We'll find out back in Barcelona in a few races time exactly where the teams are relative to each other, the first few flyaway tracks have always thrown up slightly spurious results. Melbourne will be quite surprising too I think.

[8Zgkdeee]

I think it's quite well known that Sauber have a good car, as its Sector 1 and 3 times were right up there. It was only Sector 2 that let them down. I expect solid points in Melbourne.

[Forexampleee]

I think it's quite well known that Sauber have a good car, as its Sector 1 and 3 times were right up there. It was only Sector 2 that let them down. I expect solid points in Melbourne.

This quite contradicts what De la Rosa was saying. He said the car wasn´t good on long straights, but I guess their problems are not only with top speed...

[Peter Hill]

I think it was the track that didn't suit their car to be honest.

But I thought Pedro had good pace, just a shame that reliability put a spanner in it for them. Pedro wouldn't have probably scored any points, but he wouldn't have been a long way away, as he was ahead of both STRs.

[Clielldub]

They had to start with a car that wasn't massively underweight?

didn't Williams do this type of thing last year, how many times was Rosberg fastest in practice only to be hanging around 10-15th all race

[Cucoulkrory]

sauber were a disappointment...but then again this was the first race under the new system so I'll give them a pass

[Aswdwdfg]

didn't Williams do this type of thing last year, how many times was Rosberg fastest in practice only to be hanging around 10-15th all race

That was a Williams issue which they resolved about 1/2 way through 2009. As soon as Williams stopped faffing about with low fuel banzi's on Friday Nico went on a run of consecutive points finishes, even on unsuited tracks like Spa.

[corolaelwis]

Problems detected so far:
- Top speed in long straights
- Speed in slow corners

Tough combination

I expect them to be far better in Melbourne, otherwise it's gonna be a very hard season ahead, since I don't think they will develop their car that much (because of lack of funds)

[cmruloah]

Bahrain is a brutal test for a first race... especially with the new infield. You have:
The longest lap time on the circuit exaggerates the speed gap to the slower teams.
Extra long straights highlights any deficiency in straight-line speed.
The rough & twisty new infield was a handling nightmare.

All the teams will look better at Australia.

[tipoketpu]

Yeah, shame. I thought we were long past stupid fake testing times.

Thanks Peter Sauber - you've screwed my FGP team

I thought something was fishy with them!

[Soadiassy]

Hmm maybe some sort of hex has been placed on them for keeping the stupid BMW name?

Seriously though this isn't the first time it's happened, OK there's the long run analysis stuff as well, but it'd be boring if we could tell exactly who was going to be where from pre-season testing, finding out for real at the first weekend is half the fun

[TobaccoNUE]

Too early to say

Maybe its a car that blows hot and cold like Toyota was last year.

[DoctorGordanBens]

It certainly looks bleak for Sauber in terms of future outlooks. They are already one of the slowest among established teams and have barely any cash to keep developing further. Something must happen during this season - I can't help but feel that Sauber's ownership is only a temporary solution like Brawn's ownership was in 2009. But unlike Brawn, Sauber doesn't have the luxury of having a great car to attract sponsors and potential new owners/shareholders. But the factory at Hinwil should still be attractive, so we'll see.

[8Zgkdeee]

I can see a rich Arabian buying Sauber midway through the season to help fund them. One big thing that helps Sauber financially is Kobayashi - as the top Asian driver in motorsport he may attract sponsorship. A podium for him may kick start Sauber again.

[corolaelwis]

Thought I should bring this thread back again, as this is starting to look very bad for them

What a disaster! I don't really know what to expect next. Obviously the margin for improvement is as big as it gets:

Bahrain: double DNF (KOB lap 11, DLR lap 28)
Australia: KOB DNF (1st lap), DLR P12
Malaysia: double DNF (KOB lap 8, DLR lap 0)

3 races finished until now, or 163 laps of competition, of which Kobayashi has only raced 20. For DLR is not quite bright either. On qualifying they look something like lower-mid class, but if you rely on results (which is what F1 is about) I think they are the worst team so far (maybe together with Virgin) of the whole bunch. Even Lotus and Hispania are showing some progress compared to this!