Sauber F1 Team
Sauber duo Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Gutierrez expressed their confidence after practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Sauber has scored just seven points in 2013 - all courtesy of Hulkenberg - but both drivers were pleased after Friday's two practice sessions.
"It has been a good Friday. I think the level of performance is a bit difficult to judge," said Hulkenberg, who was fifteenth in second practice.
"We still need to work on low fuel pace, especially for qualifying. My run on the medium tyres also wasn’t the best, so there is room for improvement there. The long run was quite consistent and in terms of pace it also looked reasonable. We have a good baseline and did all the tests we needed to do. The tyres were pretty straightforward. Now we have to keep working, improve small bits and see where we finish tomorrow."
Gutierrez was marginally faster than Hulkenberg during second practice and urged that Sauber needs to adapt to the new tyres during racing situations.
"We were able to draw some conclusions about the new parts we brought here, and it seems like everything is working as expected."
"It’s a matter of finding the right balance between how much you can push and how long you want the tyres to last in one stint. The behaviour of the tyres is different. They are a bit more difficult to warm up, but therefore they last longer. Now we have to adapt as quickly as possible. Overall, I’m quite confident we can get a better result than in previous races."
