Valtteri Bottas in 13th place in Suzuka qualifying – and still a little disappointed: “The tires were at the end in the last sector,” he says angrily
After two 16th places on the grid in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, Valtteri Bottas made it into the second qualifying session in Japan for the second time after Australia. Just like two weeks ago in Melbourne, the Sauber driver secured 13th place in Suzuka – and was even disappointed in the end that it wasn’t more
“After Q1, I had secretly hoped for a bit more, maybe even Q3,” he admits. Bottas had finished eighth, just 0.7 seconds behind Max Verstappen’s best time. However, he was only able to improve by a few thousandths of a second in Q2: “I didn’t find much more time compared to Q1 and pushed quite hard. But that meant the tires were at the end in the final sector. That’s a fine line.”
Nevertheless, his assessment is largely “positive”: “We’ve made progress, and that’s nice to see. With the new underbody, the car is more predictable and more consistent overall, especially in fast corners. It’s getting slower. When it’s this close, the updates make a difference. And if you compare us in the first race with now, we are definitely making progress.”
“We had a new front wing in Melbourne and a new underbody here. Both are small things in themselves, but when it’s this close, it makes a big difference,” says Bottas. And: “It’s mainly downforce. The balance is a bit better, but above all it’s grip. “
What the Suzuka update really brings
In the documents Sauber used to report the updates to the FIA, the changes to the underbody are described as follows: “The new floor panel, with extended struts and a redesigned front and center section, improves the airflow and stability of the car and the aerodynamic efficiency of the overall package.”
Bottas is convinced that even the first update of the 2024 season, the new front wing introduced in Melbourne, would have made it possible to finish in the points. “With a normal race,” he says. But two weeks ago, the pit stop once again failed. A problem that Sauber has still not completely solved.
The final redesign of those components that cause problems when changing tires is expected for Shanghai. But: “We practiced a lot of pit stops this weekend. It went much better with the changes and I have a better feeling. We don’t have one hundred percent certainty that it will work. But close to 100 percent,” Bottas believes.
Zhou: Thrown off track by FT3
Less satisfied than the Finn was his Chinese team-mate Guanyu Zhou, who finished 20th and last in Q1. Immediately after his final lap, he reported on the pit radio that he was “still having the same problem in turns 10/11” and: “There’s not much more I could have done. The car is sliding everywhere.”
In Zhou’s defense, it should be noted that only Bottas has the new front wing in the Melbourne spec this weekend. After one of the new wings came off two weeks ago when he rode over a kerb, the latest version is currently only available in a simple version. However, both Sauber drivers had the new underbody
This was not the reason for Zhou’s retirement. Team representative Alessandro Alunni-Bravi defends him: “He missed the last part of the third practice session because of a technical problem that we are still investigating. He lacked crucial time to prepare for qualifying.”
Zhou himself says: “My lap wasn’t clean, but it wasn’t a disaster either. If I’d had a few more laps beforehand, things might have turned out differently. Unfortunately, another weekend with a problem on Saturday. Before qualifying, I was pretty sure that Q2 would be possible. But I just didn’t have enough time to prepare perfectly. “
