The Sauber F1 Team once again split their running between their race drivers on the final day of pre-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Friday, and ran different programmes for both.
Marcus Ericsson finished twelfth fastest after having the first running with the C36-Ferrari on Friday morning, and ran some short runs with the Supersoft and Ultrasoft Pirelli compounds, but the Swede admits that there is still plenty of work to be done to ensure the team are competitive when the season gets underway at the end of the month in Australia.
“It was an interesting morning, where I had some fun with short runs on Supersoft and Ultrasoft tyres,” said Ericsson. “All in all a productive last morning session at the end of the pre-season testing – without having any issues with the car.
“For sure we made some more improvements today, but we are still not there, where we want to be. We still have to do some work to analyse all the data, to improve the car.”
Team-mate Pascal Wehrlein took over the car for the afternoon session and felt it was important for him to analyse the C36-Ferrari, especially on the Soft and Medium Pirelli compounds, and now heads to Australia for his first race with his new team.
“It was another important afternoon for me in the new C36 car – completing 42 laps overall,” said Wehrlein. “We changed the programme and continued our extensive analysis of the Sauber C36-Ferrari by continuing with aero tests on soft and medium tyres.
“Nonetheless I was able once again to take the next step forward to get more familiar with the new car. I can’t wait for my first race for the Sauber F1 Team.”
