Problems changing tires put the Formula 1 team from Hinwil back in last place. The technical solution to the misery is dragging on – the mechanics and racing drivers are increasingly unsettled.
The pit stops take far too long: At the Australian Grand Prix, the Chinese Zhou Guanyu was 20.2 seconds ahead of the Sauber garage.
Andy Hone / Imago
The harshness of everyday Formula 1 life is often expressed in a seemingly harmless industry saying: Stopwatches don’t lie! Often a few thousandths decide on the fastest lap or the pole position.
Races, positions and therefore more prize money are also won in the pit lane. The mandatory tire change has long been a tactical means of overtaking a competitor. The record time for replacing all four wheels is currently an incredible-sounding 1.80 seconds, set by the McLaren racing team. Red Bull, a champion team even in front of the garage, recently even made a perfect stop in the dark for promotional purposes.
The pit team of the Sauber racing team from Hinwil can only look with envy at their fast competitors ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, which concludes the first quarter of the season on Sunday evening. Changing tires is a complex matter anyway, but Sauber driver Valtteri Bottas describes what happened recently as “unacceptable”.
The Sauber team is in last place in the table with no points, although the C44 Ferrari is definitely a racing car with potential. But complications when changing tires regularly ruin your chances of scoring points. The events at the Australian Grand Prix were particularly disastrous: two of the four stops for Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas were already among the slowest in the field well beyond the three-second mark, then Zhou stood in front of the garage for 20.2 seconds Chinese had also stalled the car.
The Finn fared even worse; Bottas could only be dispatched after 31.18 seconds. Together with Bottas’ 52-second break in Bahrain and Zhou’s 29-second standstill in Saudi Arabia, this is a black series. The Sauber team made five of the ten worst stops this season. The team management has already apologized to its racing drivers, representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi says: “We need more consistency. Our main goal is to stay out of trouble.” These are statements that seem anything but satisfactory.
🚨TOP 10 SLOWEST PIT STOPS
Bottas (Bahrain): 52.44s
Ricciardo (Jeddah): 41.61s
Bottas (Australia): 31.18s
Zhou (Jeddah): 28.71s
Zhou (Australia): 20.20s
Ocon (Australia): 14.71s
Hulkenberg (Bahrain): 14.35s
Sargeant (Bahrain): 13.54s
Gasly (Bahrain): 8.03s
Zhou (Japan): 5.43s pic.twitter.com/euOjk5itcr— Holiness (@F1BigData) April 17, 2024
The cause is a technical problem
So far, there has hardly been a race weekend for Sauber without problems in the pits, which is turning into a trauma. It’s not as if the team of mechanics forgot their job overnight. Rather, the increasing number of incidents in which wheel nuts jam and then sometimes even roll through the pit lane shows that it is primarily a technical problem.
The cause can be found in the new vehicle design for the 2024 season. As part of the modifications, the wheel hubs and wheel nuts were also changed, which required new pit stop equipment. But suddenly it keeps getting stuck somewhere. And the technical solution to the misery doesn’t seem so simple. A so-called cross-threaded nut on the front left of the wheel is causing the Hinwil racing team the greatest concern. Apparently a light alloy is used, which was originally intended to make the car overall and especially the stops faster so that Sauber can get closer to the top teams.
But so far, exactly the opposite has been achieved. When unscrewed, the nuts tilt slightly, which is probably related to the temperature of the hub. Because this is not a trivial problem, there is no quick solution. The fatal problem did not occur in the simulations and during the test drives, in which pit stop exercises are regularly carried out.
A simple return to the tried and tested old parts is not possible; they no longer fit the newly designed wheel suspensions. Engineers and suppliers have been working on the necessary changes for several weeks, but the new design and the subsequent metallurgical manufacturing and testing process eat up a lot of time during ongoing racing operations.
Stake explains its pit stop problems which is not down to one part but the whole system.
The complexity around the system means it won’t be an easy or quick fix + Pujolar adds on front wing situation with Guanyu: #F1 #AustralianGP | @MsportXtra pic.twitter.com/PDTKl9A7W1
— Darshan Chokhani (@DarshanChokhani) March 26, 2024
Sauber is in danger of losing touch with the midfield
In addition to the hardware, the crew’s processes were also changed. This also needs to be adjusted again. The mechanics were instructed to proceed cautiously for the time being. But this cannot be a permanent situation for a racing team that wanted to catch up with the midfield this year and will compete as an Audi factory team in the future.
Audi’s governor in Hinwil is also concerned about the current situation. Sauber managing director Andreas Seidl has only just announced the first positive change with the signing of Nico Hülkenberg as a works driver for the next two seasons.
The German was also poached by the Haas racing team because of his high level of technical understanding and his ability to work as a team. Of course, the engineer Seidl is particularly upset when details massively hinder the upswing on the racetrack. “We clearly have to do better,” says the Bavarian from the background. He is therefore calling for more aggressive development beyond the season and thus faster production of the individual parts: “We want to show that we are heading in the right direction.”
A final technical solution that will literally get the problems under control will not be found until the race in Imola in mid-May. For so long it remains uncertain whether everything will go well when a black and green racing car is called into the pits.