Sauber: Next update should deliver "major" step forward

The Swiss team is well aware that a lack of downforce from its 2017 F1 challenger is costing it performance, which is why it has been working for several weeks on a revamp of its C36.

Team principal Monisha Kaltenborn knows that the team needs to eke out more performance from its chassis if it is to move forwards, because it is committed to running year-old Ferrari engines until the end of the season.

"The car is not where it should be, and the technical team now has to improve its competitiveness," she explained. "That is the clear goal. They know that, and it is now for them to try to already take the next step with the package we want to bring around Silverstone and Spielberg.

"There will be a bit of it in Spielberg, and then Silverstone and Budapest, so that should be a major step. And then we will see where that takes us to."

Although the team is currently ninth in the constructors' championship, thanks to Pascal Wehrlein's eighth-place finish at the Spanish GP, it has fallen away from the opposition in ultimate pace in the last two races.

Kaltenborn thinks that the changes coming could help it leap forward to become a part of the intense midfield field again.

"It has to be our target," she said. "We have not set any hard and fast positions there, because there has not been enough time to seriously look at that, but that [the midfield] is where we want to be.

"Our target still remains that we want to go into the midfield and we see how far we can get. I believe in it, but it is not going to happen just by my belief.

"It is a challenge to our technical team and they are taking up the challenge, and now they have to show that they can master it."

Sauber's progress in F1 last year was hurt by a financial crisis which prompted an investment deal with backers Longbow Finance.

Kaltenborn said that the team now had the resources it needed to make the right developments, even though the slow down last year had hurt it.

"It takes some time until the processes start working again," she added. "That doesn't happen overnight - even if you have been very long in the sport.

"But I understand if it has taken a while. We were not spot on there right at the beginning, but if you look at the aero side, aero has been where the issues were and we do have not a bad wind tunnel I would say. So they have all the tools and it is up to them."