Team preview — Sauber-Ferrari

Sauber-Ferrari is one of the teams usually seen below the giants Ferraris, Red Bulls, Mercedes and McLarens. They have never finished in the top three in the last ten years at least. They finished sixth last year in the Constructor’s Championship and their current position is seventh. In 2013 they signed Nico Hulkenberg from Sahara Force India and Esteban Gutierrez has been their reserve driver since 2012 who got promoted to drive along with Hulkenberg this year.

Talking about this year, it has not been a great season as of now for them. Out of 14 races, they finished without points in seven races. They scored 12 points in the last race, Korean Grand Prix, which were their maximum points in 2013. Sauber had three retirements and in the season opener, Hulkenberg did not race due to fuel problems with his Sauber C32.

Seeing the records of qualifying, in most of the races either Hulkenberg or Gutierrez was eliminated from Q1 or Q2. The Singapore Grand Prix was the Mexican’s career’s first GP where he reached Q3. This was a huge achievement for the Swiss team. They qualified just one this year in top three, i.e. Hulkenberg’s P3 on grid in the Italian GP where he finished fifth. The Mexican-German duo is yet to experience a podium finish in the ongoing season. The former Force India driver showed in the last weekend that he is capable of beating the top racers after he finished fourth.

Esteban Gutierrez

He joined Sauber in 2010 as a trainee who went to join the race team only in 2013. He is still yet to win a championship point after 14 races. This has not helped the Sauber in any way for the Constructor’s title. He managed to out qualify his teammate only once when he started tenth on the grid, one place ahead of Hulkenberg. Adding to this, he has two retirements this year. In the Chinese Grand Prix, he misjudged his brakes and went on to hit into the back of Adrian Sutil at the end of the very long back straight. In the Hungarian GP, problems in his gearbox made him retire from the race. G

Gutierrez finished eleventh in the last race—he missed his career’s first championship point—Felipe Massa won the tenth position just by few seconds. Let’s see if manages the first points for Sauber in Japan on Sunday.

Esteban Gutierrez in 2013

Number of race starts	14
Wins	Nil
Pole positions	Nil
Podiums	Nil

Nico Hulkenberg

After his decent performance in 2012 for the Indian team Sahara Force India, a lot was expected from this German. He replaced the Japanese driver Kamui Kobayashi in Sauber, who had finished 12^th in the last season, three points to Hulkenberg’s 63. Nico has performed poorly in the first half of the current season. He was in points in seven races, out of which five came after the Canadian Grand Prix.

But the last race in Korea was his career’s best finish. In the final leg of the race in the International Circuit of Korea, the three former World Champions Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button were fighting for the fourth position which was stubbornly held by newly confident Nico Hulkenberg. He finished fourth behind Sebastian Vettel and the two Lotus drivers by defending his position in an amazing manner.

Nico Hulkenberg in 2013

Number of race starts	14
Wins	Nil
Pole positions	Nil
Podiums	Nil

On-demand Hulkenberg

2014 season of Formula One is going to have a set of new rules. One of them is related to the driver-car weight. The minimum weight is increased from 642Kg to 690Kg (driver+ car). The engines will be heavier as they are being switched to 1.6 litre turbo from the present used 2.4. And the engines will get more heavy than anticipated. So the taller drivers apparently may face difficulties to get their contracts for the next season. But Hulkenberg is getting lucky in this case even after being one of the tallest drivers.

Lotus principal, Eric Boullier is ready to take Hulkenberg as Kimi Raikkonen’s replacement. He has a lot of confidence on his abilities so he can once ignore the disadvantage the racer can get to their team because of his weight. According to Boullier, “Nico is at the limit, but not overweight.”

Sauber-Ferrari has to perform well in order to keep on-demand Nico Hulkenberg for next season. But as of now, let’s see how they deliver in the upcoming Japanese Grand Prix. Can Hulkenberg create troubles for the Championship leader, Vettel who is only one win away from his fourth driver’s title?