Sauber completes programme as planned for the Friday practice in Russia

Both practice sessions ahead of the Russian Grand Prix went according to the planned programme for the Sauber F1 Team. Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr were able to complete 51 and 52 laps respectively. The Brazilian has a new chassis for the Russian Grand Prix weekend.

Marcus Ericsson

Sauber C35-Ferrari (Chassis 01/Ferrari)
1st practice: 19th / 1:41.962 min (22 laps) / 2nd practice: 22nd / 1:41.652 min (29 laps)

“It was not the ideal Friday for me. Nevertheless, I ran many laps today gathering a lot of information on the car-side. This track has a unique asphalt, which makes it challenging to get the tyres to work. We saw it last year, and again today, and I have been struggling to get the tyres in the right window. We have tried different set-ups, but we are not going in the right direction yet. We have to look into the data and see what we can make better for the rest of the weekend.”

Felipe Nasr

Sauber C35-Ferrari (Chassis 03/Ferrari)
1st practice: 14th / 1:41.085 min (21 laps) / 2nd practice: 19th / 1:40.740 min (31 laps)

“I was able to complete the programme as planned today. I covered a decent mileage, which was important in order to understand how the tyres behave compared to last year. The car is a lot more together compared to the previous race weekends. I was satisfied with the pace on soft tyres, but we have to work more on the supersoft compound. We tried some set-up work for the run on supersoft tyres, which did not work out as we wanted it to. We have to analyse this, but I think there is room for improvement.”

Sauber F1 Team