James Key hopeful of Sauber’s success and says both drivers are well acquainted with the car – Formula 1
Sauber’s technical director, James Key, has said that the Sauber team has done well in the pre-season testing and the new C30-Ferrari will be a competitive car in the 2011 season. He added that both the drivers, Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez, are very
familiar with the car and anxious for the start of the season.
The Sauber team has done almost 6,000 kilometres in the pre-season tests and has not faced any major problem except for one crash which Perez managed. Talking about the reliability of the C30-Ferrari car, Key said, “Fundamentally the car has been reliable
and there hasn’t been any great need for major redesigns or rethinks in certain areas.” He further said that small technical problems did occurr but no major issue was raised in the pre-season testing.
Talking about the tests, Key said that Sauber has run on full fuels on most days and have mostly done real race simulations. He added that only on the final couple of days in Barcelona where the qualifying simulation was run, C30 was on a lower fuel-load
and Perez managed his fastest time.
Talking about the pit-stop crew and their work load he said that there was much to learn in these pre-season tests as there are new Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) regulations about the KERS, movable wing and the new tyre supplier, Pirelli.
Secondly he said that the crew will have to be more active as the car will be coming to them quite often. He gave his opinion about the Pirelli tyres and said that the drivers which are new to the Formula 1 sport will co-op better with them compared to those
who had previously ran on the Bridgestone tyres.
Talking about his drivers, Kobayashi and Perez, he said that Kobayashi is now the senior driver and he is working well with the team to modify the car. When talking about Perez he said, “Sergio has developed very well over the past four tests. He has learned
an awful lot, his feedback has improved on a test by test basis, and his confidence in the car has also improved a great deal.”
Sauber will be hitting the track on the first Grand Prix in Australia in the next couple of weeks.
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