James Key says Sauber will have to fight for sixth place in 2011 championship – Formula 1 news
Sauber technical director James Key has said that his team will have to fight to keep their sixth place in the 2011 Formula 1 championship until the end of the season.
The Swiss team is at the sixth place with 35 points ahead of Force India-Mercedes in the 2011 championship battle at the moment. However, Key stated that Sauber will have to react in the upcoming races of the ongoing season in order to keep their position
ahead of the Force India team.
Talking to reporters, Key said, “I think from our side our consistency isn't brilliant, we go to certain tracks and conditions where we know we are going to have trouble, and other circumstances where it is good and we probably have to keep more consistency
to try and fight with Renault and Force India.”
The team’s technical director went on to mention that he is sure their rivals will be competitive in the next race weekends, as they seem in a strong form from the last few races of the season.
Apart from that, Key believes his team will be strong in the next two rounds, which are scheduled to be held in Belgium and Italy respectively due to the nature of the Spa-Francorchamps and Monza racetracks.
He added, “But when we have to face the medium it’s just very difficult. It's very peaky, you can easily go over the top of its working range or underneath, but to be on it seems to be very condition-dependent.”
Key discussed about the performance of the team’s drivers in the season. He added that Sauber drivers Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi could not enjoy a comfortable race on the medium tyres by Pirelli, while the sets of soft and supersoft tyres provided
them an easy run in the last few races of the ongoing season.
The Italian tyres manufacturers recently confirmed that the sets of medium and soft compounds will be taken for the 2011 Belgium and Italian Grands Prix.
Let’s see how both of the drivers perform with the medium tyres at the Spa and Monza racetracks.
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