2024 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix Highlights

 

Kick Sauber F1 Team

 

Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber saw improvement at the 2024 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix, as Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu fought closer to the rest of the pack and finished in 16th and 18th place, respectively.

It was a step forward compared to Zandvoort, a reaction from the team upon which to build for the future as the team brings the European season to an end

Valtteri Bottas

It has been a pretty clean, uneventful race for us; we went for a one-stop strategy, starting with the hard compound, as we tried something different and hoped to get lucky with the timing of a potential Safety Car. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out for us, but I think it was good to try it. Looking back at how the race unfolded, I wouldn’t have done anything different: we gained a few track positions, getting to P16 on merit, but that was the most we could do. We haven’t made massive progress in pace. Our weekend started well, but we couldn’t keep up with the momentum or improve much. Still, it has undoubtedly been a better weekend compared to Zandvoort. We have a lot of work ahead of us to make a further step, which is what we’ll be working in the run-up to the next back-to-back in Baku and Singapore.

Zhou Guanyu

Our pace today wasn’t strong enough to fight closer to the points – especially in a smooth race without interruptions or big shocks. While our pace was clearly an improvement over last weekend in Zandvoort, we are on the back foot in terms of performance compared to our direct competitors. This weekend, we’ve seen some improvement in single-lap pace, but it’s clear that we need to find the car’s sweet spot and execute a flawless weekend to get the best possible result. Rather than relying on luck, our team focuses on putting our heads down and continuing to work hard to find those crucial few-tenths of a second that will bring us closer to the top ten.

Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative

We could see some positive signs in today’s performance by the team, even though the finishing positions, on paper, don’t look much different from the previous races. Both drivers managed their tyres well, hard and medium alike, allowing us to follow the race strategy we planned before the race, with degradation under control. Of course, this is still not enough to fight for points, as we lack overall pace, but the low-drag package we brought to Monza and the setup changes we made for qualifying improved the car balance and gave Valtteri and Zhou a chance to fight. We still have a long journey ahead of us in the battle for points, but it is essential to acknowledge that the gap with our direct competitors has been reduced today – it’s a positive sign we need to outline.




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