Sauber practice without problems at Monza

At the Italian Grand Prix on the high speed track in Monza Esteban Gutiérrez, along with test and reserve driver Giedo van der Garde, concentrated mainly on aerodynamic comparisons.

In the afternoon, Adrian Sutil was back behind the wheel of the C33.

For both drivers the main focus was on race preparation by running low and high fuel loads with both tyre compunds. As expected, it was quite a challenge to get the tyres to work optimally.

Both practice sessions went flawelessly which enabled the team to complete the whole programme.

Esteban Gutiérrez (car number 21):
Sauber C33-Ferrari (Chassis 01/Ferrari)
1^st practice: 11^th / 1:28.114 min (21 laps) / 2^nd practice: 14^th / 1:27.840 min (33 laps)
“In the morning we went through our planned programme. We tried different mechanical set-ups and changed the aero balance on the C33. At the beginning it was ok, but with the modifications that we made at the end of the first free practice I did not have a good feeling. In the afternoon we changed the modifications back again to the ones from the beginning of FP1, and the session was overall ok. I think we can still improve the car a bit further. We are looking into it for tomorrow, and we will also concentrate on the grip evolution.”

Adrian Sutil (car number 99):
Sauber C33-Ferrari (Chassis 03/Ferrari)
2^nd practice: 16^th / 1:28.029 min (35 laps)
“It was a good Friday. As I could not run in the first free practice, I was not driving much today. At the beginning it is always difficult to find a good rhthym. In general the second free practice was quite good, but I am not totally satisfied with the balance of the car yet. We have to work on having less understeer. On the other hand, we completed our planned programme without any issues.”

Giedo van der Garde (car number 36):
Sauber C33-Ferrari (Chassis 03/Ferrari)
1^nd practice: 15^th / 1:28.429 min (19 laps)
“During the first two runs I struggled a lot with the balance of the car. We started with a very low downforce level, so, as a result, I had a lot of understeer, which was my main issue. Towards the end of FP1 we went to a rear wing with more downforce, and made some changes on the front wing. The lap times got better and I improved quite a lot. I think the car is more stable and has less understeer with this configuration, so I was more satisfied with the balance of the car at the end of the session.”

Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering: “It was positive that we had no technical issues at all today, which enabled us to complete the planned programme. In the morning, Giedo did a rear wing comparison as well as some set-up work. He was able to give us some valuable information.

Esteban’s programme was quite similar in the morning. In the afternoon Esteban and Adrian did some set-up work and race preparation with the tyre comparisons on low and high fuel loads.

The balance of the car is reasonable, however, there is still room for improvement. As expected, it was quite a challenge to get the tyres to work. With the hard compound it was not too bad, but the medium compound is quite difficult to handle. Overall, the performance was more or less where we could expect it on this type of track.”

Sauber F1 Team