Race report

Sauber on the Bahrain GP: A weekend to forget

Bahrain GP was a huge disappointment for the Sauber F1 Team.

The Grand Prix of Bahrain, which took place as a night race for the first time ever, was a huge disappointment for the Sauber F1 Team. Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutiérrez were both involved in accidents that were not their fault, so were forced to retire. Gutiérrez flipped over, but luckily he is uninjured.

Esteban Gutierrez, Sauber F1 Team crashes with Pastor Maldonado, Lotus F1 Team 06

Photo by: XPB Images

Esteban Gutiérrez (car number 21 – Sauber C33-Ferrari - Start on soft tyres, after 12 and 27 laps change to soft tyres – DNF on lap 39): “First of all, the most important is that I am ok. They did all the checks at the hospital and everything is fine. Concerning the accident, I was completely surprised that Pastor (Maldonado), who came out of the pits, ran into me. I was clearly in front of him. I turned into the corner and I was suddenly hit and I rolled over. There was nothing much I could do.”

Adrian Sutil (car number 99 – Sauber C33-Ferrari (Chassis 03/Ferrari – Start on medium tyres, after 7 and 13 laps change to soft tyres – DNF on lap 17): “My race was over quite early. Jules (Bianchi) braked too late and went into my car in the hairpin. I was not able to do anything to prevent it, and my car was damaged. He was driving aggressively for the whole race and pushed me off at the start. With his move he destroyed mine as well as his own race. It was unneccesary. In general, the weekend was difficult for us. However, I wanted to finish the race to cover more kilometres and also to gain experience with the car. The next race in China will come soon, so it can only be better.”

Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: “Let’s start with the positives: We are pleased that Esteban is fine after his spectacular accident. Generally, it was a weekend to forget. We knew before that on this track our limitations with the powertrain would be significant. This was confirmed during the race. Nevertheless, losing both cars through accidents is very disappointing. In both cases, it was not the fault of our drivers. We will now forget this weekend and focus on the upcoming race in China, where we expect some improvements.“

Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering: “We are relieved that Esteban is uninjured. After Adrian’s accident, we changed his front nose and sent him back into the race. However, we noticed that the damage to his car resulted in a massive degradation of the performance. Therefore we decided to retire him from the race. With regards to the performance, we were in a similar situation as before. On this track it was obvious that one of the three manufacturers had a huge advantage regarding the powertrain. This also resulted in an advantage for the respective customer teams. For the race in China we will have updates for the car and will try to improve.

Sauber F1 Team