Ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, the Sauber F1 Team re-signed both Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr to the team for the 2016 season, but qualifying at the Hungaroring did not go well for the team, with Ericsson seventeenth and Nasr eighteenth.
Despite feeling the team had done a good job during practice, for Ericsson the qualifying efforts did not go as well as the Swedish driver had hoped, and is now focused on having a clean race on Sunday to get the best result possible for the team.
“It has been a difficult weekend for us,” reflected Ericsson. “We have done a decent job over the practice sessions, working step by step and trying to improve the car considering the package we have at the moment.
“Of course, it is disappointing being out after Q1. Now we need to focus on a clean race tomorrow.”
Team-mate Nasr was equally disappointed with the outcome of qualifying after ending down in eighteenth, and admitted he was struggling throughout controlling the temperatures of his tyres. He also feels the car does not have sufficient grip to be able to fight the teams directly ahead of them in the race.
“It was a difficult qualifying today,” agreed Nasr. “We were struggling a lot with the tyres due to overheating. On the other hand, the balance of the car feels good, but we just have not enough grip on the tyre side to fight against our direct competitors.
“It is going to be a tough race, but we need to take any opportunity that might come up.”
