2024 Belgian Grand Prix – Sunday report

KICK Sauber F1 Team leaves Spa-Francorchamps with mixed feelings after a Belgian Grand Prix that saw end-to-end action from lights to flag. Valtteri Bottas was in contention in the higher reaches of the midfield for most of the race, running tenth until the last quarter of the race; following his last pitstop, he eventually finished 16th (then promoted to 15th). On the other side of the garage, Zhou’s strong start to the race was brought to an end by a technical issue that resulted in retirement on lap six.

The team heads into the summer break on the back of a more positive performance in both qualifying and the race, hoping to carry this momentum into the two-week shutdown and return strongly when the championship resumes in the Netherlands.

Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative: “Today’s recognition goes to our pit crew, who achieved a remarkable 1.9-second pit stop with Valtteri on lap 36. This is a significant achievement for the team, especially after the issues we faced at the start of the season: it shows that we are now together with top teams for pit stop times. Having recovered from this challenging situation, we now need to focus on closing the gap in car performance through the effort of everyone, both trackside and back in Hinwil. For Zhou, the race was cut short early on: an issue on lap three, which we tried to fix remotely, ultimately forced us to retire the car on lap six. We’ll need to investigate what seems to be an electrical issue; this is very unfortunate as he had had a strong start and was pleased with the car balance, in what could have been a positive race for him. With Valtteri, we fought in the midfield for most of the race; starting on medium tyres, we extended the stint on hards to attempt a one-stop strategy, similar to Alonso and Stroll. However, the pace was not enough to protect us against Stroll, Ricciardo and Ocon, so we pitted for a final stint on new mediums, pushing to close the gap to the Alpines, Williams, and Astons. Despite initial good laps in which the gap was shrinking, Valtteri struggled with rear tyre overheating, preventing him from getting closer to the cars ahead. Nevertheless, he had a strong race with overtakes on Hulkenberg and Tsunoda. This weekend, we’ve shown progress in qualifying and the race with Valtteri’s upgraded car, but it’s still not enough to fight for points. As we head into the summer break, it’s important for both drivers and the team to recharge and return to Zandvoort with strong determination. The trajectory of our recent developments has been positive, and with another step forward, we can compete for points. This is our target and firm intention for the second part of the season.”

Valtteri Bottas (car number 77):
KICK Sauber F1 Team C44 (Chassis 04/Ferrari)
Race result: 15th
Fastest lap: 1:47.019 (Lap 37)
Strategy & Pit Stops: Start (New Soft) – Lap 11 (New Hard) – Lap 35 (New Medium)

“We gave it a good try today, attempting something different with the strategy, even if it eventually didn’t pay off; we could have probably stayed out and, even if we could have finished a couple of places higher than sixteenth, it most likely still wouldn’t have brought us a point finish anyway. As a positive, it felt like we were in a slightly better position in terms of race pace against our main competitors, although it was still not enough for the top ten – which is why we must keep bringing upgrades and progressing in every area. Now, a well-deserved summer break awaits the team; it’s been a challenging first half of the season, so we’ll be looking to refill our tanks and come back strongly in Zandvoort at the end of August.”

Zhou Guanyu (car number 24):
KICK Sauber F1 Team C44 (Chassis 02/Ferrari)
Race result: DNF
Fastest lap: 1:52.099 (Lap 2)
Strategy & Pit Stops: Start (New Hard)

“Today’s race marks a disappointing end to the first half of the season. The day had started quite well for us: we opted for the hard compound, the pace and overall car balance felt good, and I was able to gain positions. I was close to the two Haas cars in front of me before experiencing a loss of power, followed by a loss of brakes, which ended my race. I reckon we had potential today; starting on the hard tyre gave us some strategic options, making this outcome even more disappointing for the entire team. Now, we’ll head into the summer break to recharge and come back refreshed. I hope Zandvoort – where I’ll run the same upgraded car that Valtteri has been running in the last two events – will be the turning point for us as a team.”