1
Charles Leclerc believes that Sauber's progress in 2018 has looked bigger than it actually is. The Swiss team has no doubt made improvements from the start of the season, as it struggled in the opening portion of races.
However, the team has scored 18 points in the opening half of the season with Leclerc racking up 13. The Monegasque driver has reached Q2 on five occasions this year, and Q3 four times. But the 20-year-old has played down the progress of the team, stating it looks bigger than it really is.
“I think we made it look bigger than it was, even though it’s huge,” Leclerc told Autosport. “At the first race I was just not driving well, so obviously the performance was less good than it should have been because of me.
“Then from Baku until now the progress that we see is mostly because of the car, and because we progress with the car. So, this is definitely still a big step. We are now very close to Q3 in the last few Grands Prix, which is a very positive sign and it gives a lot of motivation to the whole team.”
Sauber currently lies in ninth place in the standings, 14 points ahead of Williams. And Williams' Sergey Sirotkin doesn't believe that Sauber is in any danger of being caught, stating that the Hinwil-based squad is out of reach for the rest of the year.
"I think where they [Sauber] are, they are, for sure, unreachable because they are well into the midfield," he admitted. "For us I think at the moment the key is to try, I wouldn’t say to score concrete results, but to find our concrete and strong recovery way and start to produce the things which are clearly correlated well to our expectations."
Fergal Walsh
Grand Prix of BelgiumLocal time
Grand Prix of BelgiumLocal time
Bahrain International Circuit - Winter testing
M. Verstappen
C. Sainz jr
C. Leclerc
Bahrain
Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
Saudi Arabia
Jeddah Street Circuit
Australia
Albert Park
Japan
Circuit Suzuka
United States of America
Miami International Autodrome
Monaco
Monte Carlo
Canada
Gilles Villeneuve
Spain
Circuit de Catalunya
Austria
Red Bull Ring
United Kingdom
Silverstone
Hungary
Hungaroring
Belgium
Spa-Francorchamps
Netherlands
Circuit Zandvoort
Italy
Monza
Azerbaijan
Baku City Circuit
Singapore
Marina Bay Street Circuit
United States of America
Circuit of the Americas
Mexico
Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
Brazil
Interlagos
United States of America
Las Vegas Street Circuit
United Arab Emirates
Yas Marina Circuit
0 members have this team as their favourite
Tweets about Sergey Sirotkin
155,857 comments on Williams 38 members have this team as their favourite Tweets about Williams
Replies (1)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
I'd say a big part of it might be down to the very driver in that car, Leclerc has certainly looked very strong, and another big part is the fact that McLaren hasnt improved all that much, and STR, Force India and Williams all took a step back, meaning Sauber could actually compete. But regardless, the fact that they didnt join the rest in taking a step back is in my book a small win. I just hope they will continue this run.