Valtteri Bottas doesn’t think Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber’s lack of pace is a short term fix as they remain the only team to not score points after the 2024 Austrian Grand Prix.
Bottas finished sixteenth in the race on Sunday, having an uneventful race due to a lack of pace for Sauber, which has been evident all season. Zhou Guanyu has had similar struggles, also failing to score points all season long. The Fin hasn’t had a bad individual season though, beating his teammate in both the qualifying and race head-to-heads, but he’s got no points statistically having his worst start to a campaign since 2017.
Speaking to F1TV, Bottas spoke about his uneventful race while also crediting the way they made progress between the Sprint and the main race on Sunday.
He said: “There wasn’t much action where I was but we did better than in the Sprint race with the pace. We did find a little bit of something, so it was a little bit closer with the competition.”
Bottas doesn’t think there’s a short term fix to the problems Sauber have got, but did say that the tight margins in the midfield may have a part to play in their progress when they introduce new upgrades.
“I don’t think it’s a short term fix, but the thing is the gaps are so small in the middle pack. We have a director of where to go, now we just need to wait for some new parts. Now Silverstone, we’re not giving up before going there even though no upgrades but it’s a different track and we’ll do our best.”
Photo: Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber