By Jamie Makin (7/3/2004)
March 7 2004

During their past ten seasons in Formula One, Sauber has gained the reputation as a team that starts the season strong but progressively declines later through lack of testing and development. Should Sauber continue that trend, yesterday's race foretells a bleak season ahead. In each of the practice sessions, qualifying session and the race, all of the team's results fell between P10 and P15. Lap times ranged anywhere from just over one to slightly less than four seconds behind the all-conquering Ferraris. Massa retired from the race with engine problems, while Fisichella finished in tenth outside of the points. Last year at the same race, Frentzen qualified 4th and finished 6th, while Heidfeld qualified 7th and performed competitively until contact with another car put him out of the race. Last year's success was achieved with the problematic C22, while this year's lackluster performance came from the C23 which gets its lineage from last years championship-winning Ferrari.

On the surface it would appear that the season is off to a dismal start for Sauber. But is this really the case? The team doesn't seem to think so. "I lost a lot of time early in the race behind Heidfeld, who was driving very defensively, and I knew I was much quicker. Once I got by I was immediately able to prove this. The balance of the car was really good and my lap times were very encouraging for the future," remarked Fisichella after bringing his car home in the top ten. Team principal, Peter Sauber agreed, "When he [Fisichella] was on clear track, however, he showed the potential of the C23, which is encouraging for the upcoming races."

So, why are the team so upbeat about their prospects when the results look so uninspiring? Because the team knows they did not get 100% of the potential out of their car or their drivers this weekend.

Fisichella made some critical mistakes in qualifying and both drivers made mistakes on race day. In qualifying, Fisichella took the first turn wide, putting a wheel on the grass and disrupting his concentration for the remainder of the lap. Running on a lighter fuel load that Massa, who qualified eleventh, Fisichella should have easily qualified in the top ten. Instead, his 14th place starting position made it a difficult race from the start. After running wide again on turn one, he fell behind the Jordan of Nick Heidfeld. Being stuck behind the slower car of his former team held him back for most of the race. Massa, on the other hand, qualified well but made some mistakes during the race. On numerous occasions he ran wide in the turns, losing valuable time. In one particular instance he spun the car 360 degrees but was fortunate not to hit anything so he was able to continue. Both drivers realize their mistakes and will work hard to perform better next time out.

Sauber was not the only team to fall short of their expectations though. Top contender McLaren was looking decidedly troubled as well this weekend, allowing Sauber to match their pace. Massa was impressed by the C23's potential despite retiring with engine trouble. "I had a great fight early in the race with Kimi, and at one stage I was so close behind him that I couldn´t even see the brake marker boards."

The fastest lap times of the race for both Sauber drivers stacked up well against their rivals. Fisichella set a best lap time within half a second of those by Renault's Jarno Trulli, BAR's Takuma Sato and McLaren's David Coulthard. Although Massa lagged behind slightly, he was still significantly quicker than both Toyotas, both Jordans and Christian Klien's Jaguar.

Compared with its rivals, the C23 is clearly a car with potential. As a near clone of the Ferrari F2003-GA, it has the advantage of using the 2004 Ferrari engine and gearbox. Ferrari have proven the competitiveness of this design by winning the championship last year, and claiming a dominant 1-2 finish this weekend. Sauber will never reveal just how much the C23 is like the F2003, but the design concept of the C23 is clearly strong.

However, it will take the team time to learn enough about their new C23 to get the maximum potential out of it. The single-keel C23 is so radically different from the twin-keel C22 that Sauber's engineers and mechanics are on a steep learning curve with it. By comparison, Ferrari has been slowly evolving the same design concept since their F2002. Sauber's state-of-the-art wind tunnel also came online a bit too late to help out with the initial development of the C23, but the team expects improvements to come out of it by the start of the European season.

There is clearly room to improve in a lot of areas for the team this year. It is no wonder that they are confident for the upcoming races.

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Complete Race Weekend Results for Team SAUBER-PETRONAS:

Session	Fisichella	Massa
Free Practice 1	P15 1:29.120 (+3.993)	No Time
Free Practice 2	P11 1:26.601 (+1.883)	P13 1:26.969 (+2.251)
Free Practice 3	P13 1:27.744 (+1.958)	P14 1:28.341 (+2.555)
Free Practice 4	P15 1:27.195 (+2.102)	P14 1:27.172 (+2.079)
Qualifying 1	P10 1:26.286 (+1.060)	P12 1:26.833 (+1.607)
Qualifying 2	P14 1:27.845 (+3.437)	P11 1:27.065 (+2.657)
Race	P10 (+1 lap)	DNF (+14 laps)
Fastest Lap	Lap 39 (1:26.282)	Lap 11 (1:26.846)
Number of Stops	3	2

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