Sauber are confident their extensively overhauled new car design for the 2024 season will prove an immediate step forward.
The new C44 chassis was not presented at their lavish launch event in London’s Guildhall, where a show car was used. The real car will make its track debut in a filming day at the Circuit de Catalunya on Friday.
Having indicated last year it was working on a substantially revised design for 2024, the team gave the first details of the changes yesterday. Among the most striking features on the C44 will be the use of Red Bull-style pull-rod suspension at the front to improve its aerodynamics.
Team representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi also confirmed Sauber plans to introduce a series of upgrades beginning at the first race. Speaking in response to a question from RaceFans he denied the team expected it would take a few races to get to grips with their change in concept.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “I think that we have, first of all, a very aggressive approach this year. You will see in the first races a lot of upgrades coming immediately from the very first race in Bahrain. So we need to perform from the very beginning.
“But that is the start. Then the season is longer. We need to keep developing the car with a good progression until the very last race. So for me we need to be ready to do a better performance immediately.
“That will be not [needing] two or three races to understand the car. I think we have done a lot of work during the winter and we are optimistic that we can do immediately a step. How big will be the step will be depending not only from ourselves, but also from what the other competitors have done.”
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However Alunni Bravi admitted the team is likely to find itself in a fight with the three rivals it shared the bottom four places in last year’s championship with.
“I think we have seen when there is a stability in terms of regulations that there is a convergence in terms of performance,” he said. “And also in the second part of last year in terms of lap times, all the teams were really close.
“Red Bull has done an amazing job. They have maybe one of the greatest drivers of all times. So I think that is difficult for a team to lose all the advantage in one season. But we expect a strong competition, maybe a closer one.
“Of course what we are targeting is not Red Bull. We want to be competitive with Williams, with Racing Bulls, with Haas Formula 1…
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