There were a number of drivers who came away from qualifying at the Monaco Grand Prix wondering if there’s much point taking part in Sunday’s race.
Q1 saw Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso fail to progress which is a huge blow for Red Bull and Aston Martin.
Things are looking even worse for the Haas team who saw both of their drivers disqualified due to an issue with their upgraded rear wing.
However, the team that will be heading into Sunday’s race feeling the most pessimistic is Sauber.
There was the smallest gap between 1 and 15 in Q1 in the history of Formula 1 but there were two outliers right at the back of the pack.
Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu should have been lining up on the back row of the grid at Monaco.
However, Zhou has taken to Instagram to admit that he doesn’t feel confident at all in his Sauber car around the Monaco circuit.
He’s got a nearly impossible job on his hands to try and score points even if he’s been promoted ahead of the two Haas cars on the grid.
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Zhou Guanyu not confident in his Sauber car after nightmare Monaco Grand Prix qualifying
A lot has been made of Logan Sargeant’s struggles at Williams this season in comparison to teammate Alex Albon.
However, no driver has started at the back of the grid more this season than Zhou Guanyu.
He’s failed to get out of Q1 once this season and has been out-qualified by Valtteri Bottas eight out of eight times this year excluding Sprint qualifying.
Zhou has got within a position of scoring a point twice this year, at the season opener in Bahrain and the Sprint Race at his home Grand Prix in China.
However, he’s one of several drivers out of contract at the end of the campaign and his performances for Sauber won’t make him an irresistible option for any teams on the grid.
Zhou confirmed on social media after qualifying in Monaco that he’s not at all confident in the car around the tricky street circuit.
It’s a seriously challenging race and knowing the car is going to do exactly what you ask of it makes such a difference when the margins are so fine.
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Zhou Guanyu in difficult position at the Monaco Grand Prix
Posting on his Instagram story after initially qualifying 20, Zhou said: “Difficult weekend so far for us, not feeling confident with the call at all, we are clearly missing some grip but will keep pushing to improve.”
The most worrying aspect of Zhou’s qualifying effort in Monaco is the gap between him and his teammate and it demonstrates that he’s not confident that the car will do what he wants it to when pushed to its limits.
Zhou’s fastest time in Q1 of 1:13:028, which was nearly half a second slower than Bottas.
What will be much more concerning for the team as a whole is he was a second slower than the next non-Sauber car Sergio Perez.
Zhou is fighting to survive in Formula 1 at this stage and while he may be one of the favourites to drive for Haas next year, he’s doing himself no favours with his efforts in qualifying.
If Haas are looking for a direct replacement for Nico Hulkenberg then Zhou doesn’t have the skill set to fill that role.
He’s going to have to produce the drive of his life and hope that any safety cars or changes in the weather benefit him immediately.
The post ‘Clearly missing’: Zero-win driver admits he’s ‘not feeling confident’ in his car after Monaco GP qualifying appeared first on F1 Oversteer.