2024 United States Grand Prix – Friday

Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber dove straight into the action at the United States Grand Prix, as Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu completed the sole practice session of the weekend before taking part in qualifying for tomorrow’s Sprint race. Despite being closer to their competitors, Valtteri and Zhou set the 19th and 20th times in the session: however, the team feels confident that a further step forward can be achieved ahead of qualifying for Sunday’s race.

Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative: “We can’t avoid being disappointed with the performance in today’s sprint qualifying session, where Valtteri and Zhou struggled to find the right balance, particularly in the first sector. The margins between going out in SQ1 and progressing to SQ2 are minimal, but this doesn’t hide the fact that we couldn’t make the progress we needed to make the cut. Earlier today, we received positive feedback on the new package we introduced on Valtteri’s car, including a new front wing. However, we were unable to maximize the potential of these updates during the session. We acknowledge the challenges of the sprint format in optimising the package and the setup, but this is not an excuse for today’s results. Moving forward, we will work closely with our drivers to find more potential in the car through setup adjustments. Our goal is to extract maximum performance for the upcoming qualifying session tomorrow and the main race on Sunday, as we continue our push to the end of the season.”

Valtteri Bottas (car number 77):

Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber C44 (Chassis 02/Ferrari)

FP1: 18th / 1:35.041 (26 laps)

SQ1: 19th / 1:35.148 (6 laps)

“Qualifying was quite difficult today, with the wind picking up and affecting my consistency. The end result doesn’t look different from recent rounds, but the feel in the car is improved: the upgrades we brought to this race have put us in a better position and we are closer to the competition. We still need to find more stability, so the plan is to fine-tune the setup after tomorrow’s sprint, before qualifying for Sunday, with the goal of doing something more tomorrow and putting us in a better position for the race.”

Zhou Guanyu (car number 24):

Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber C44 (Chassis 04/Ferrari)

FP1: 20th / 1:37.219 (15 laps)

SQ1: 20th / 1:36.472 (6 laps)

“It was a very tricky day, straight from the morning with some technical issues costing us some track time, and few laps completed in FP1. On a Sprint weekend, losing any track time is something we cannot afford, so we knew the day would be hard.

My best lap in Sprint Qualifying was deleted, but on that attempt, I was just half a tenth behind Valtteri: still, it wouldn’t have been enough to move up from the last row. It’s frustrating to feel you’ve got the most out of the car and you’re close to your team-mate, but both of us are at the back of the field: it shows that, as a team, we still have a lot of work to do. However, I’m hopeful that by solving the issues we’ve faced so far this weekend, we can have a cleaner Saturday and Sunday.”