2024 Miami Grand Prix – Sunday
Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber fought hard in the 57 laps of the Miami Grand Prix but, despite making up ground, couldn’t claim a spot in the top ten as Zhou Guanyu finished 14th, two positions ahead of Valtteri Bottas in 16th.
The team returns home now after an intense first quarter of the season; next up, the start of the European leg of the Championship, in Imola in two weeks.
Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative: “Today, the team tried everything to get a result: you could see it in the tyre compound selection, in the different strategies that we chose to allow Valtteri and Zhou to find the extra bit of performance we missed throughout the weekend. We were able to make progress and fight in the mix but, unfortunately, we didn’t have that extra edge needed to be in the top ten. It’s been a tough weekend for the team: now we need to reset as we enter the European season in Imola. We will have upgrades coming from Hinwil to help us on our quest for points: even though the first quarter of the season hasn’t brought us any point, nobody is losing motivation. We saw today that all can happen: we just need to work hard to place ourselves in a position to make the most of every opportunity.”
Valtteri Bottas (car number 77):
Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber C44 (Chassis 02/Ferrari)
Race result: 16th
Fastest lap: 1:32.098 (Lap 55)
Strategy & Pit Stops: Start (New Soft) – Lap 11 (New Hard) – Lap 29 (New Medium)
“It was good to try something different with the strategy today, given the position we were starting from; unfortunately, the timing of the Safety Car didn’t quite work out for us. We didn’t have the pace we thought we would have, so, eventually, there wasn’t much we could do to progress through the field. Still, we learned a lot this weekend. We’ll have a chance to go for it again in two weeks’ time in Imola, on a completely different track layout. We’re also set to bring some new parts there, which should further help us: as we’ve seen this weekend, the battle around us is extremely tight, and even the smallest margin could make all the difference.”
Zhou Guanyu (car number 24):
Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber C44 (Chassis 01/Ferrari)
Race result: 14th
Fastest lap: 1:31.991 (Lap 56)
Strategy & Pit Stops: Start (New Medium) – Lap 28 (New Soft)
“Today we tried everything we could. It was a tough race that felt quite similar to yesterday’s sprint session, with a good first stint. Unfortunately, I found myself stuck behind Alex [Albon] and, while I was able to leverage our corner speed advantage, we simply couldn’t match the top speed of his Williams. Even with DRS available to me, I couldn’t close the gap enough to overtake fully. We still keep working hard: unlike some of our rivals, we haven’t introduced any major upgrades in the last two races, but the team is putting in significant efforts, and we remain positive that our next developments, starting from next time out in Imola, will perform as expected, hopefully allowing us to fight for points.”
