Bottas: Sauber's path to F1 revival "not rocket science"

Valtteri Bottas, the experienced Finnish driver for the Sauber F1 team, has candidly addressed his team's lack of competitiveness this season.

Following a scoreless Canadian Grand Prix, where potential points were left on the table, Bottas insisted that the path to reviving Sauber's fortunes is "not rocket science."

Missed opportunities in Montreal

In the mixed conditions of the Canadian GP, Bottas found himself running well before an untimely pit stop for slick tires, one lap too early, compromised his race.

He eventually finished 13th, agonizingly close to the points in 10th.

With retirements from frontrunners like Leclerc, Sainz, and Perez, Montreal presented a golden opportunity for Sauber to open their 2023 account, especially as rivals Alpine secured a double points finish.

Calls for upgrades and development

Bottas was clear in his diagnosis:

"We still have work to do. We need to keep bringing upgrades and make the car faster."

The Finn underlined the simplicity of the task ahead, stating,

"It is not rocket science, we just need more bits."

However, he tempered expectations for the upcoming Spanish Grand Prix, a high-downforce track vastly different from Montreal.

"We have small things, but a very high downforce track, a different track to here. I think it is going to be close, as we have seen. The next step is to get back to Q2 and then we can fight a bit better."

Zhou Guanyu's struggles compound woes

Sauber's woes were compounded by Zhou Guanyu's torrid weekend in Canada.

The Chinese driver was plagued by incidents during practice, prompting two red flags.

His struggles continued in qualifying, leaving him to start from the pitlane.

Zhou openly admitted to "struggling across the different compounds" and being "out of the race" midway.

He vowed to "start a little bit more from scratch" with plans already in place at the factory to understand and rectify the issues.

Sauber's quest to join the midfield battle is clearly an uphill one.

But with Bottas' measured confidence and the team's determined approach, their revival may indeed be "not rocket science" but a matter of bringing the right upgrades to unlock much-needed performance gains.