Sauber's best result of the season...all downhill from here?

[rubystone]

We often see budget-compromised teams have their best result at the beginning of the season and then slip backwards. The Sauber is no doubt that classic "good basis for development"...but will Sauber have anything in the kitty to pay for it? They have a number of sponsors on their car, but not too many on the team clothing...WOuld be great if they have negotiated performance payments from Carlos Slim. Their CFD resources are still impressive, so no doubt they have upgrades planned.

I wonder why VW don't think about entering F1 with them?...I guess the BMW conection may always leave a taste in Germany's mouth?

[davepoth]

The suspicion is that their design can handle the decrease in tyre diameter much better than the other cars. Whether that's something that can be reverse engineered into other cars we will have to wait and see.

[rubystone]

davepoth said:

The suspicion is that their design can handle the decrease in tyre diameter much better than the other cars. Whether that's something that can be reverse engineered into other cars we will have to wait and see.

I thought the wheels were still the same 13 inch diameter? I wasn't aware that the profile of the tyres has reduced...

[anonymous-user]

Yep, if the chassis is naturally easy on the tyres then they might have a pit stop in hand for the entire season, worth about 30 seconds a race and that's huge. If they carry on like they do today they could bag many more sponsors and pay for the development. Perez and Kobayashi are great drivers too, I see them going up.

[pw32]

MSTRBKR said:

Yep, if the chassis is naturally easy on the tyres then they might have a pit stop in hand for the entire season, worth about 30 seconds a race and that's huge. If they carry on like they do today they could bag many more sponsors and pay for the development. Perez and Kobayashi are great drivers too, I see them going up.

Nice good for them. Great drive for a debut. Gotta love kobyashi too. He is superbly entertaining.

[PhillipM]

I would think their suspension has as much to do with it as anything, the roll centres are very low compared to most teams who have compromised for aero, especially up front.

That won't be too easy to change for other teams so they should get away with having a pitstop in hand for most of the season.

[davepoth]

rubystone said:

I thought the wheels were still the same 13 inch diameter? I wasn't aware that the profile of the tyres has reduced...

The tyres themselves are "shrinking" through the race as they wear, and this is happening much more than it did on Bridgestones.

[weyland yutani]

DC revealed their secret weapon to be a MkII Escort exhaust Seriously though I see Sauber being very strong in the midfield this year.

[rubystone]

PhillipM said:

I would think their suspension has as much to do with it as anything, the roll centres are very low compared to most teams who have compromised for aero, especially up front.

That won't be too easy to change for other teams so they should get away with having a pitstop in hand for most of the season.

Interesting - would be great to compare, say the Ferrari with the Sauber. The former seems to be quite extreme in those areas - unlike most others...with the exception of the massively exaggerated front wing pylons - almost a foot in length...presmably to direct the air more efficiently to the "keel" section?

FWIW, the wear rate on the surface of the tyres isn't that massive, certainly no more so than on the old supersoft tyres during the Michelin/Bridgestone tyre wars. Pirelli are already at the maximum permitted diameter (660mm IIRC) and it's going to mean no more than a 10mm reduction in tyre diameter max over the course of a stint...that just won't make a huge difference to a car's relative position. Whereas the ability of the car to get the tyres into the right operating temperature window and keep them there does. It's that area that Sauber clearly has got right out of the box...and if that is a function of the suspension, it won't be easy for another team to replicate that without impacting their whole car's aeorodynamic balance.

[PhillipM]

Well, I know it's hard to compare from different angles, but the Sauber looks even more extreme (if that's the right word for a more convensional suspension setup?) than the Ferrari:

[PhillipM]

Looks like it's all uphill from here given they're gonna be sharing results with HRT...


Excluded due to to an infringment of the regs on the upper rear wing/flap.

edit: Just read another update and it's a problem with the minimum radius on the panel.

Edited by PhillipM on Sunday 27th March 12:04

[ajprice]

Well I wasn't expecting any drop from hero to zero to be so sudden!

[pw32]

thinks rubystone should be a fortune teller. Can I have 6 numbers for wednesday please.