Can Sauber challenge Mercedes in 2013? – Formula 1
Sauber emerged as the strongest midfield contender in the 2012 Formula 1 season and even gave a real tough time to Mercedes as they stood just 16 points behind the Silver Arrows at the end.
The Hinwil based team had quite a successful pre-season testing programme this year in which they developed a competitive car for their drivers, Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi.
Perez has been deemed as one of the most talented young drivers in the field as he delivered some remarkable performances during the year.
The Mexican driver secured an inspiring second podium finish in the Malaysian Grand Prix after setting off from 9th grid position.
After the Malaysian GP, he was surrounded by many speculations that he might replace Felipe Massa of Ferrari in the coming season. However, the president of the Italian team, Luca di Montezemolo asserted that Perez is too young for their squad and dismissed
all the ongoing rumours. Furthermore, the team principal of Ferrari, Stefano Domenicali also said that they are ready to support their struggling driver in every kind of circumstances.
Nevertheless, Perez successfully secured a new deal with Mercedes for the next season as Lewis Hamilton’s replacement. On the other hand, Hamilton is going to join Mercedes where he will replace Michael Schumacher who has retired from the sport.
In contrast, the Swiss team has signed a new deal with Nico Hulkenberg who performed really well for Force India in this season.
It is to be noted that even though Kobayashi also performed convincingly well in this season, but he could not be able to secure his race seat for the next season and will be replaced by Esteban Gutierrez in the coming year.
Sauber team principal, Monisha Kaltenborn said earlier this year that their target was to beat Mercedes in this season. Although, they could not achieve their target, but they came up very strong all the way and remained successful in proving their potential.
It can be expected that the Swiss team may not be able to perform well in the next season as compared to this one because of their changed line-up which includes a rookie, Gutierrez.
Nonetheless, Kaltenborn has expressed her full confidence on their next year’s driver line-up. Besides, she said that they have been analysing the performance of the 21-year-old for a long time and are very much positive that he will attain good results
in his debut season.
She also said that they expect Hulkenberg to perform a lead role in the next year as he has gained some valuable experience in the sport over the last few years.
“Esteban has already been part of the team for a long time and we have followed his career very closely,” Kaltenborn said.
“In 2010 we signed him up as an affiliated driver, and in 2011 and 2012 he was our test and reserve driver. We mapped out his path to Formula One step by step,” she said.
“Esteban has great talent and now he's ready to take the leap. We are in no doubt we have a strong driver pairing in place for the 2013 season with Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Gutierrez,” she added.
It is evident that Mercedes have more experienced drivers for the next season, but they lacked in reliable development of car this year. Contrarily, Sauber have less experienced but talented drivers and better car to build on in the next season.
Let’s see how both the teams compete in the coming year.
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