'Optimistic That We Can Go Further Forward': Sauber's Technical Director

Thursday, 28 December 2023 at 17:00

Alfa Romeo/ Sauber's New Technical Director, James Key, suggested the tight grid gives his team hope because small improvements might result in significant differences.

The F1 grid in 2023 has been maybe closer than ever before. On the one hand, looking at the Championship standings will suggest Red Bull was super dominant, and other teams lagged behind.

On the other hand, the Championship standings might not completely reveal how closely matched all the F1 teams have been, especially toward the end of the season. As reported by motorsport.com, James Key said:

"It's an immensely tight grid. Unless you really track the numbers it's not obvious from outside, because the pecking order is still similar."

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Alfa Romeo/ Sauber finished ninth in the Constructors' Championship and was one of the slowest teams in 2023, but Key pointed out that even the difference between Red Bull and his team where quite small.

"But if you look at the lap times, 1.5% overall, it means we're all at 98.5% of the quickest car. And sometimes it's less than that."

F1 teams were already pretty closely matched in 2022, and Aston Martin showed it is possible to make a big enough step forward to compete for podiums.

In 2023, McLaren started as possibly the worst team and finished the year as the third-best team in terms of points collected in the second half of the season. Key continued:

"So that suggests if we get everything right, both at the track and at the factory in our decisions on development, decisions on the car, then there's plenty more opportunity there."

AlphaTauri was also last at one point of the season, and the upgrades introduced to their car in the second half of the season moved the Italian team up almost three positions.

It doesn't have to be too significant changes that can make a huge impact on performance compared to other teams when the grid is so closely matched. Therefore, Sauber's technical director remains optimistic going into the 2024 season.

"And if you look at that band of, I guess it's P5/6 at the moment really down to P10, it's immensely close. In that respect there's every reason to be optimistic that we can go further forward."