Sauber driver Felipe Nasr believes that the Swiss team should be targeting Renault in the Constructors Championship after new investment should improve their competitiveness.
Longbow Finance have invested in Sauber and after a troubled start to the 2016 season, new investment will allow the team to develop the car.
Speaking to F1i, Nasr said that if the upgrades work, then they should jump both Renault and Manor in the Championship.
“Performance, that’s all we want,” Nasr said. “We want to bring the new bits to the car. We expect that the next few races we can start adding performance to the car, making the car quicker and getting more competitive where we should be. Unlocking the performance of the car which was plain already from the beginning of the season but we couldn’t do it.
“For sure for next year we can have more time, more investment and more things that can be done, but I’m not ruling out this year yet. We can still fight for points, we have to aim for those points, especially against Manor. Also Renault is not too far away, they only scored six points. Of course this is a game, everybody is doing something every day trying to move forwards.
“As soon as we start introducing these bits I’m expecting the car to go quicker and fight for higher positions and why not some points? Still so many races and a lot can happen.”
With new investment, Nasr wants Sauber to exploit their full potential and improve for 2017.
“It’s a big relief for everyone. It’s great news, I’m happy for the team, I’m happy they could find a solution in the end. It gives everyone a fresh boost and a new perspective to look forward to a new chapter.
“We’ve been very tight on things we could do, very limited on things we could do with the car on the development side. Internally in the team we were not using all we could as a team basically, all the departments, all the design areas, there were a lot of things that were waiting for the green light to be pressed but we couldn’t do it.”
