Monisha Kaltenborn believes the new regulations that are being introduced this season are offering Sauber F1 Team a ‘reset’ in their development.
The team had a difficult 2016 Formula 1 season, as both drivers failed to score any points until the Brazilian Grand Prix. Their main rival, Manor Racing MRT scored their first point in Austria, after Pascal Wehrlein finished tenth, and it was looking like the Swiss team would end the season behind Manor but for a ninth finish in Brazil from Felipe Nasr put them ahead.
Earlier in the season, Sauber was taken over by Longbow Finance, this gave them the boost they needed to fight for championship points. For Kaltenborn, team principal for Sauber, she believes if the regulations weren’t changing this season, Sauber would have had to take a much bigger step because of how far behind they are.
“It is for me a very significant opportunity because we have not really had any setback in our development plan; we are on schedule,” Kaltenborn told RACER.
“With the new people coming in, even with a head of aerodynamics [Nicolas Hennel de Beaupreau] coming in it has already had an effect on what we want to do. We have taken certain steps we wanted to and we could now, so actually it is all in place. I see this is a very big opportunity for us to take that next step.
“If everything stayed the same we would have to take a much bigger step because we are that far behind. Now, with this, everything is in a way reset and you are more or less in a normal situation where you say, ‘OK, what step can we take? What will the others do?’ And it’s not like you have to take twice the size of step to be close to where you want to be.”
