Stake F1 had a more encouraging weekend than the previous ones in Las Vegas, thanks to an upgrade on the two Sauber C44s of Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou. The latter finished 13th, while the Finn paid the price of a penalty for changing his engine.
“We can be reasonably happy with the race pace in Las Vegas. Guanyu battled mid-pack with our direct competitors throughout the evening, battling until the final lap to secure 13th place.” said team representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi.
“We changed the strategies of both cars to a two-stop strategy to limit tire graining and maintain performance. Valtteri's race was much more difficult: starting last on the grid, we knew he would be in difficulty without Safety Car.”
“He completed the first part of the race on hard tires, then had a very good last stint but, unfortunately, as soon as he was overtaken by the leading cars, he no longer had the slightest chance to recover positions” continues the Italian, who wants to confirm this progress before the end of the season.
“Overall this weekend showed progress in qualifying and we saw Guanyu return to good form in racing. We have two races ahead of us to continue this progress and we will have to give it our all, we are not giving up not the idea of scoring points in 2024.”
