Drivers: Marcus Ericsson – 22nd, 0 points; Felipe Nasr – 17th, 2 points
Best grid position: 14th – Ericsson, Singapore
Best race result: 9th – Nasr, Brazil
2016 World Constructors Championship Position (2015, 2014): 10th (8th, 10th)
2014 was a year to completely forget for Sauber – without a single point for the first time in their history in Formula One. 2015 was slightly better – a number of points opportunities. What would 2016 bring, after a fairly tricky pre-season?
Sauber F1 2016 Review
Unlike the messy situation which became so public in 2015, Sauber confirmed their unchanged driver pairing for 2016 very early on into Silly Season. The car looked to be a minor improvement on the previous machine, but it became evident that the teams behind them – McLaren and Manor, had made substantial leaps, shuffling Sauber towards the back at a number of Grand Prix.
All Sauber could do was try to capitalise on the misfortunes of others in an attempt to try and sneak in the odd point or two. A couple of 12th places achieved by Ericsson were the best they could manage early in the year, whilst Nasr struggled massively. The two controversially collided at Monaco, and was very costly for the team. Worse was to come for Sauber as Manor was highly competitive at Austria in the hands of Pascal Wehrlein. Wehrlein sneaked into the points, relegating the team to the very bottom of the standings.
Sauber were frequently fighting with Manor and the Renault team, but those teams were able to take advantage of the quirks of their respective cars. What appeared to be Sauber’s best chance of scoring points perhaps came at the Mexican Grand Prix – where Ericsson produced the drive of his career to date, but to no avail in a race which saw just one retiree. That was until the Brazilian Grand Prix, where Nasr was able to keep his cool and secure two vital points in the rain-affected crash fest.
Those two points scored by Nasr are reportedly worth 35 million euros to the team, and may well secure the team’s future in the sport. The team’s driver line-up is not confirmed for next season, but may not need to look for drivers with vast amounts of sponsorship money now, with this large cash injection.
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