Neither Sauber driver finished the race on Canadian GP

The Canadian Grand Prix in Montréal is a weekend to forget for the Sauber F1 Team. Neither driver finished the race. Nico Hülkenberg had contact with another competitor when lapping on lap 48, which left him with a flat tyre. Esteban Gutiérrez locked up the front wheels and crashed into the barriers when exiting the pits after his second pit stop on lap 63.

Nico Hulkenberg, Sauber F1 Team

Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt

Nico Hülkenberg (DNF): “It’s disappointing to finish a race like this. Lapping can be troublesome, but these guys are racing too and have things happenings in the race, the same as us. I lapped Giedo van der Garde and braked. At first I didn’t feel anything until I came out of the corner and realised the car wasn’t going straight, so we decided to stop.

Even after we lost positions at the start of the race, we didn’t really have the pace today. I was fighting for 14th and couldn’t do much more. Of course this is not an ideal way to end a race, but in the end we wouldn’t have gained much more.”

Esteban Gutiérrez (DNF): Start on supersoft tyres, after 21 laps change to medium tyres, after 63 laps change to supersoft “For the entire race the car was difficult to drive, and I was always pushing to the limit. Right from the start everyone was closing in. The first set of tyres was difficult to drive on and a one stop would have been impossible. When I came out from my second pit stop into the fist corner, I went over one of the bumps, the front locked up and I couldn’t stop.”

Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: “This is a weekend to forget. We knew this track wouldn’t really suit our car. If you have weaknesses on the car in addition to a track that doesn’t suit you, then it’s twice as hard. We have a lot of work to do.”

Tom McCullough, Head of Track Engineering: “The circuit’s characteristics were going to make it a hard day for our car. Ultimately it was a double DNF, which is very disappointing. On the strategy side we attempted a one stop with Esteban and a two stop with Nico, which was the base strategy today.

But ultimately the tyre degradation and wear were too high for Esteban, so we had to convert to a two stopper late in the race and unfortunately he had the incident exiting the pits. Looking forward to Silverstone, that’s a track that should suit us better. We have to make sure to get the maximum out of our car.”

Sauber F1 Team