Ericsson admits Sauber has more in the tank
After four days of testing, Sauber pilot Marcus Ericsson admits his team and the Ferrari power unit have more performance yet to be shown before Melbourne.
Ferrari power units ended the day on the top of the board, with Kimi Raikkonen in the Scuderia Ferrari leading Marcus Ericsson in the Sauber.
With their car on top of the time charts yesterday in Winter testing, the 24-year-old Sauber pilot says morale at the team is very high.
“I feel like everybody at the team is excited about this season and I think this week have made that feeling even better,” said Ericsson.
“I think we need to push on and continue to work hard and then we will see in Melbourne where we are.”
Lap times vs. reliability
Most teams do not put too much stock into lap times at the opening test in any year, especially these past two years with such radical engine regulations, but the topic of whether or not Mercedes is not showing their full potential has run rampant.
While Mercedes had the dominant car last season, and has shown the most reliability at this test, Ericsson says he is most impressed with the Ferrari power unit and says the Ferrari teams are not showing their full potential yet either.
I came from a Caterham, this is for sure a big step up.
Marcus Ericsson
“We have quite a bit more (in the tank) to be honest,” said Ericsson.
“Ferrari have some more stuff to bring out as well, so that is really good.”
Sauber elected to have Ericsson in the car for the first test day, while Felipe Nasr took the wheel for the following two days of testing before the Swede finished up the final day today. This meant that Ericsson felt the car during is opening shakedown stage, then got to drive the car after three days of development.
After 4 days of on-track development
“We had a really good test. It’s been very positive because every day we did a lot of laps,” Ericsson said.
“The car I drove Sunday to the car I drove now this afternoon, there are quite a few stops forward the feeling. I think the car has made progress this year, the car is more stable in general and under braking and through the corners. It’s just more stable and gives the driver more confidence.”
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