Sergio Perez complained that the Sauber team were missing “a lot of downforce” after neither driver got anywhere near Q3 in Singapore. The Mexican, who qualified fourteenth, was surprised and disappointed that the C31 has failed to carry its competitiveness from the low-downforce tracks despite numerous set-up tweaks during the weekend.
“We have obviously had a difficult weekend here in Singapore. The main issue is that for some reason we didn’t get our new package to work. This comes as a surprise because so far all the development steps have paid off. There is a lot of downforce missing. My last lap in Q2 was clear and I think I got the most out of it. We have tried a lot to improve the car’s set-up and everything else, but it didn’t work out.”
Teammate Kamui Kobayashi fared even worse and was the big name casualty in Q1 with the Japanese driver saying a lack of rear grip left him with no confidence.
“We have tried everything but could not get rid of the huge oversteer. I have no confidence in the car and this is really the last thing you want to have to cope with on such a street circuit. The problem I have here reminds me somehow of the one I had in Budapest, where I also struggled with the car. Given how the car is, I don’t see how I can recover in the race from where I am starting, but I will not give up, this is certain. Sometimes a safety car deployment or whatsoever can play into your hands and I still hope for the team that we can score some points tomorrow.”
