Sauber drivers Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg both missed out on points finishes at the Imola GP but felt they were “strong” during the race.
Both Sauber drivers finished outside of the points at the Imola GP, with Bortoleto finishing P18 and Hulkenberg finishing P13.
Even though the pair failed to score points, Bortoleto said he felt they “didn’t finish in a position we deserved,” and the team’s pace “doesn’t change the fact that we finished where we finished.”
Safety car troubles
Bortoleto had some misfortune during the race with a badly timed Virtual Safety Car, forcing the team to change strategies, resulting in a loss of time throughout the race. Bortoloto commented after the race, saying, “I think we got a bit unlucky with the virtual safety car at the beginning, you know, we went completely the opposite of our strategy and then we tried to stop that, you know, I need to check a bit why we did that and understand because we lost a lot of time there and yeah.”
“Honestly, the pace on the hards were okay it was good.” Bortoleto stated. “It’s just a shame that we could not show that in the results.”
When questioned about whether the team has become stronger in race pace at the Imola GP, Bortoleto replied, saying, “Yeah. Honestly, I need to check, man, I don’t know. I don’t have time for the other drivers to compare, but the cars that were ahead of me, Gasly and Lawson, for the big part of the race, I was following them and not losing anything. So, it looks like we were strong.“
When speaking to the media, Bortoleto mentioned that other teams also got screwed up by the VSC just as much as he did.
“They also got a bit in the wrong side with the virtual safety car because Gasly was in the same strategy as me and he was starting quite ahead and then he finished, you know, in the back as well. So, yeah, just I think so, but it doesn’t change the fact that we finished where we finished. So, we work for Monaco.”
Wrong strategy proved costly during the race
Bortoleto touched on the safety car’s timing proving costly for his strategy during the race, saying, “I mean, you cannot predict when a safety car is coming in or not.“
“So, I think we took what we had to take and what we discussed before the race and it was just not the right moment at the right time, you know, but yes, it’s easy now to say that maybe if I started on the hards, I would be on the points and happy days, but it was not the case.” Bortoleto said.
“So, we started on medium, we got the first virtual safety car and then we tried the third stop that maybe didn’t work as we expected and we didn’t finish in a position we deserved, I think, for the pace we had today.”
Hometown hero Kimi Antonelli had to retire on lap 46 because of an issue with the car, bringing out the full safety car, compared to Esteban Ocon’s retirement only bringing out the VSC.
Bortoleto was questioned about the duration the SC was out for, to which the young Brazilian driver commented, saying, “I don’t know why they took so long, maybe because the car was still on the track and I think this is safety, it needs to be taken as many laps as is needed, but yeah. As again, I need to review.”
“I was not checking around the track to see if there was still dribbling or not, but if they kept the safety car for so long on track, there was a reason for that, I imagine.”
Hulkenberg helped by safety car
Sauber driver Nico Hulkenberg’s opinion was that the safety car timing was completely different from his teammates on the other side of the garage, commenting on the help it gave him to preserve tyre life at the Imola GP.
“Obviously the safety car helped, you know, bridged some of the tyre life discrepancy,” Hulkenberg said.
However, the SC wasn’t all help for Hulkenberg, saying, “But at the same time, you know, it put everyone back together and put Yuki right behind me and Fernando with fresh tyres, so that was obviously the flip side of that.”
Hulkenberg commented he felt a top ten finish was on during the race, stating, “I think it was always, obviously, because of the cheap stop with the VSC, I think that put us in front of a lot of people, it was obviously a cheap stop.”
“I think at the end, you know, you saw after the restart, it’s just, you know, I had, yeah ok, Fernando was on fresher tyres, but it’s just missing a little bit, you know, with halfway through to the tyre life, my medium was, and yeah, I was just struggling a bit too much to keep up with these guys,” Hulkenberg further said.
With Monaco the next race on the calendar this weekend, Hulkenberg is ready to prepare for next week’s race.
“Yeah, I mean, you always learn every weekend. Looking ahead, Monaco is obviously a very different circuit, quite unique and special, but yeah, we’ll process and digest this weekend now and prepare Monaco.”
