The Saudi Arabian GP offered little respite for Sauber as Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto endured another difficult evening marred by strategy struggles and tyre degradation.
Starting from the back, the Sauber drivers opted to split strategies for the Saudi Arabian GP. Hulkenberg ran a long stint on hards, with Bortoleto committing early to mediums. Neither approach yielded points.
Hulkenberg admitted after the Saudi Arabian GP that tyre degredation and poor balance left him struggling for pace throughout the 50-lap affair. “Starting from the back is always difficult, then it makes life much harder,” he said. “But yeah, I also feel the balance is not that great… too much tyre deg.”
Looking at the season so far, Hulkenberg concluded, “We’ve got work to do, I think that’s pretty clear.”
Rookie Bortoleto was thrown into an even tougher spot after a disrupted Friday limited his tyre allocation. Forced to run used hards from Lap 7 after an early stop under safety car, the Brazilian battled through severe vibrations in the closing laps. “If I had five more laps, they were going to blow up,” he admitted.
Sauber has now gone five races without a top-ten finish. While upgrades are expected later in the European leg of the season, the team currently finds itself boxed in by limited strategy options and a lack of outright pace. With the midfield battle heating up, Jeddah only reaffirmed how much ground remains to cover.
Bortoleto played the long game for Sauber at Saudi Arabian GP
While the result didn’t flatter him, Bortoleto once again kept pace with Hulkenberg for most of the race, despite running on heavily worn tyres.
He demonstrated composure during chaotic race moments, such as narrowly avoiding a collision with Fernando Alonso in the pit lane. Despite defending bravely, he lost out to Jack Doohan late in the race. “He had much fresher tyres, straight-line overtake, DRS, out of Turn 1- there was nothing I could do.”
Still adapting to the Sauber and life in F1, Bortoleto insists the learning curve isn’t over yet. “You never stop learning in F1, that’s my view. I’ve heard this from many world champions.”
