Bottas: We still did better than in Zandvoort

The Italian Grand Prix was the next stage of the season in which the Sauber drivers failed to score points: Valtteri Bottas finished in 16th place, Guanyu Zhou – 18th. However, the Swiss team believes it has managed to take a step forward compared to Zandvoort.

Alessandro Aluni Braviteam representative: “We have seen some positive signs in the team’s performance today, although the final positions are not much different from the results of previous races.

Both riders had a good control over tire wear and degradation, which allowed them to follow the tactical plans set out before the start. Of course, this is still not enough to fight for points, as we generally lack speed. However, the low-drag version of the aerodynamic bodykit prepared for Monza, as well as the changes made to the settings before qualifying, at least gave Valtteri and Zhou a fighting chance.

We still have a lot to do before we can fight for points, but it is important to note that the gap to our direct rivals has narrowed, which is positive.”

Valtteri Bottas (16th): “Our race was relatively calm and quiet. We opted for the one-pit-stop tactic and started on hard tyres, because we were trying to do something different and hoping that the safety car would come out for us at the right time.

Unfortunately, this did not happen, but in my opinion we did the right thing by at least trying. If you remember how the events developed during the race, I would not have acted differently. We made up a few positions and reached 16th place on our own, but this was the maximum we could achieve.

In terms of pace, our progress is quite big and the weekend started well, but we couldn’t build on that, although we still performed better than in Zandvoort. To take the next step forward, we need to keep working hard and we will do that in preparation for the races in Baku and Singapore.”

Guanyu Zhou (18th): “Today we didn’t have enough pace to fight for higher positions, although the race went smoothly, without complications or serious problems. And yet, compared to Zandvoort, we have clearly improved.

This weekend we saw an improvement in pace in one flying lap, although it is clear that we still need to keep working with the car; don’t rely on luck, but persevere to find those few very important tenths that we are missing to close the gap to the top ten.”