Can Sauber fix things in the pits?

We are three races into the Formula 1 season.

While much remains the same from 2024 — Red Bull is leading the Constructors’ Championship and Max Verstappen is atop the Drivers’ standings — recent events have shaken the field up a bit. Mercedes is floundering, McLaren is strong, and Ferrari has certainly closed the gap to Red Bull.

Then there is a fascinating fight shaping up in the midfield, one that has Visa Cash App RB F1 Team in front at the moment thanks to a strong drive from Yuki Tsunoda in the Australian Grand Prix.

With so much on the line, and a short break until the Japanese Grand Prix, this is a good time to take stock of where each team stands at the moment. But rather than a simple review, we’ll look at the biggest question facing each team right now.

Up next in this series? Kick Sauber. The team has shown decent race pace with the C44, but has nothing yet to show for their efforts.

Why?

A problem in the pits.

Sauber, we have a problem.

The C44 has shown decent race pace this season. At the Bahrain Grand Prix Zhou Guanyu finished in 11th place, and was in the mix for points throughout the night. But the first worrying sign came on a pit stop from teammate Valtteri Bottas, which went awry when the crew encountered a cross-threaded nut on his front-left wheel. Any chance of Bottas getting into the fight was gone as a result.

Then came Saudi Arabia. In Jeddah Zhou again was in the mix for points, and said after the race that he would have “comfortably” finished in P11 were it not for another cross-threaded nut. That issue saw the team endure another lengthy pit stop, and Zhou tumbled down the table to a P18 finish.

“Zhou’s race was characterized by a consistent and good performance. Choosing to keep him out during the Safety Car phase allowed him to fight with Kevin [Magnussen] and Nico [Hülkenberg] for points. Regrettably, we faced an issue during the pit stop: it was similar to last week’s in Bahrain, not the fault of any of our mechanics but something that requires thorough investigation,” said Team Representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi following the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Sauber took the extra week between Jeddah and Melbourne hoping to address the issue, only to see pitstops pose a problem in Australia. This time it was Bottas in the mix for points, but another pit stop issue ended any chance of a top-ten finish, and saw the team summoned to the stewards after the checkered flag.

“As we said before the race, we had implemented mitigation measures for our pitstop issue, something that has improved the situation but, as we have seen, not completely solved the problem: what happened to Valtteri is a slightly different, but linked, issue compared to what happened in Bahrain or Saudi Arabia, but one for which we paid a really high price and that completely ruined Valtteri’s race,” described Alunni Bravi after the Australian Grand Prix.

Making matters worse, the stewards hit the team with a fine after the race. As it turns out they lost control of a a wheel nut during one of Bottas’ pit stops, and that created a “potentially dangerous condition” in pit lane.

This is an issue that Sauber needs to solve, and quickly.

Perhaps they can get their social media team on the problem.