Sauber‘s disappointing weekend continued into race day in Hungary, with neither driver picking up any points today in Budapest.
Sergio Perez was the hightest placed of the two drivers, finishing fourteenth. Team-mate Kamui Kobayashi was running just behind Perez in the closing stages before a hydraulics problem caused him to retire at the end of the penultimate lap – he was classified eighteenth.
“I'm afraid there isn't much to say today,” said Perez. “We were just lacking the pace. We tried to stretch my first stint for a different strategy, but in the end I think there was just nothing that could get us into the points today. It is a shame, but we will fight back after the summer break.”
“We have simply been too slow here,” added Kobayashi. “We have been struggling all weekend, especially with the medium tyre compound. I also lost a few positions right after the start when I found myself on the extreme left side of the track with nowhere to go anymore. Finally I got the call to come in because of an hydraulic leak and that was it. For some reason the Hungaroring didn't work for us.”
Sauber CEO Monisha Kaltenborn praised the drivers for their efforts, but was not expecting particularly great things from today anyway.
“Looking at our grid positions, we achieved what we could today,” she said. “Both our drivers did a good job, but overtaking on this track is extremely difficult as we saw from the experiences of the other drivers. We paid the price for a weak qualifying and have to work on improving this.”
