Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber need to hold some ‘serious conversations’ behind closed doors, BBC F1 pundit Jack Aitken says.
It was a miserable day for the newly-rebranded outfit in Saudi Arabia as Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu finished as the last of the classified runners.
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Chequered Flag podcast, Aitken slammed the team for a repeat mistake.
Zhou wasn’t able to put a time on the board in Friday’s qualifying session because of a crash in final practice.
That meant he had started at the back of the grid, while teammate Bottas missed out on Q2 in 16th.
On race day, Bottas fell to 17th despite retirements for Lance Stroll (accident) and Pierre Gasly (mechanical).
Zhou, meanwhile, was one of four drivers who chose to stay out when Stroll’s crash brought out an early safety car.
He was running in 10th on the road when he did eventually come into pit, but a marathon pit stop relegated him to the bottom of the order.
The Sauber mechanics were unable to remove one of the wheels from his C44.
The same thing had happened at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, although on that occasion Bottas was the one to suffer.
Jack Aitken says Sauber pit stop woes are ‘shocking’
Aitken, who competed in the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix for Williams, says ‘alarm bells’ would have been ringing at the Swiss team after the Bahrain issue.
And he’s surprised that the team didn’t find a fix in time for the race in Saudi Arabia.
He feels there needs to be some frank discussions at the team’s headquarters before the paddock reconvenes in Australia.
“When you have an issue like that, you can be sure that, from the first moment it occurs, it raises alarm bells.
“It’s such a crucial component on the car and they would have taken pre-measures and precautions ahead of this round to ensure against it happening again, even if they’re just temporary.
“The fact that it’s happened again is pretty shocking, and it’s going to cause serious conversations to happen back at the base.”
Audi prepare Sauber takeover
It’s recently emerged that Audi will acquire 100% of the Sauber team ahead of their F1 entry in 2026.
It’s an exciting development for a team that is currently struggling near the back of the field.
However, takeovers always bring a degree of uncertainty, and that extends to the drivers.
Neither Bottas nor Zhou have convinced the Audi hierarchy of their worth just yet.
Zhou enjoyed a decent start to the season in Bahrain, winning plaudits for a solid but ‘despised’ 11th-place finish.
However, his weekend in Jeddah quickly descended into a nightmare that he’ll want to quickly forget.
Both drivers are out of contract at the end of the season, and the team’s hierarchy know race-winner Carlos Sainz will be available with Lewis Hamilton joining Ferrari.
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