Sauber F1 Team Boss Frederic Vasseur says the squad have definitely made improvements in recent weeks, but this is not being shown in the results they are achieving.
The Frenchman believes the pace of the C36 is good, but bad luck and errors are costing them better positions at the chequered flag.
Driver Pascal Wehrlein was hampered at the start of the race, when an incident involving Red Bull Racing driver Daniel Ricciardo and McLaren Honda Formula 1 Team driver Stoffel Vandoorne up ahead of him, saw the German have to take avoiding action, dropping positions in the process.
A change in strategy for the 23-year-old also did not pay off, and fourteenth place was the best Wehrlein could hope for in the end.
“The overall pace was decent. It is a shame that Pascal didn’t advance more in the first lap.
“Unfortunately, he lost a couple of positions after the start due to the incident involving Daniel (Ricciardo) and Stoffel (Vandoorne).
“Then, the plan for Pascal was to reach the end of the race on the soft tyres, which was a bit optimistic perhaps.”
Team-mate Marcus Ericsson had a much better race, but although he finished closer to the cars ahead of Sauber, he was still only one position ahead of Wehrlein, and three places away from a points scoring result.
“Marcus had a strong race, and he was not so far from our direct competition ahead.
“It seems that we are able to make improvements, which we have not seen in the results yet.”
