Marcus Ericsson believes the updates Sauber F1 Team received for the Monaco Grand Prix, should have been introduced at the Spanish Grand Prix, all the team took a step backwards in their performance.
Sauber completed their best performance in the 2017 Formula 1 season in Barcelona, as Pascal Wehrlein scored their first points when he finished in eighth, with Ericsson just missing out the top ten in eleventh. The team introduced only part of its major update package, with the majority bolted on the car in Monaco. In qualifying both cars were the slowest despite the introduction of a number of new parts on their C36.
With the strong performance in Barcelona, Sauber were expecting to be in the midfield fight but ended up being a second off the slowest midfield car in general all weekend. Neither car crossed the finishing line at the Monte Carlo street circuit, after Wehrlein had a collision with Jenson Button and Ericsson crashed out after struggling with his brakes and tyre temperatures.
The Swede believes these updates should have been introduced in Barcelona, as when you bring an update you need to tune the car which is tough to do in Monaco.
“We were surprised in Barcelona to be so competitive,” Ericsson told Autosport. “As everyone brought update packages and we only brought a rear wing.
“Then we had everything else [for Monaco], with the new floor, bargeboards, turning vanes, everything. We were expecting after the Barcelona performance to be in the midfield fight. Then we were a second off the slowest midfield car in general all weekend.
“We were turning the car upside down all through the weekend, going in different directions with the set-up to try and find something. When you bring an update, you need to tune the car, but it’s tough to do that in Monaco. It would’ve helped us a lot to get the update in Barcelona as we could have set the car a bit better around the update when we came to Monaco.”
