Guenther Steiner tells 27-podium F1 team not to bother attending the Singapore Grand Prix

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The Singapore Grand Prix marks the 18th round of the 2024 Formula 1 world championship. There will be a four-week break after the race before the season concludes with consecutive triple-headers.

There are several close battles raging in the constructors’ standings. Most notably, McLaren and Red Bull are competing for the title, with the Woking outfit moving ahead for the first time after Baku.

Ferrari, 50 points adrift, remain a contender too. Behind them, Mercedes and Aston Martin look almost certain to finish fourth and fifth.

The scrap for sixth is especially close as RB hold a slender five-point advantage over Haas. Williams more than doubled their tally for the season with a 10-point haul in Baku, leapfrogging Alpine in the process.

James Vowles’ priority at this point will be beating the French manufacturer. But there’s also a chance that Williams will close in on RB and Haas if their upgrade continues to deliver.

Meanwhile, Sauber sit bottom of the championship without a single point. Based on their current performances, there’s little prospect of them finishing in the top 10 before the end of the season.

Guenther Steiner says there’s little point in Sauber seeing out the 2024 season

Sauber could become the first team since Haas in 2021 to go an entire season without scoring. Williams suffered that ignominious fate in 2020, as did Marussia in 2015.

The main cause for optimism at the Swiss team right now is that Audi will take over at the start of 2026. The giant manufacturer will enter F1 with huge ambitions.

In the short term, the team will continue to take pain. There are minimal changes to the regulations for 2025, so they’re unlikely to make significant improvements over the winter.

Speaking on the Red Flags podcast, former Haas boss Guenther Steiner remarked that Sauber ‘shouldn’t go’ to the remaining races. There’s little point in them attending, such is their underperformance.

“They are so slow,” Steiner said. “I think they shouldn’t go to the last six [sic] races. They should be told ‘do not even come along guys, there’s no need for you guys’.”

Jacques Villeneuve accuses Audi and Sauber of ‘not even trying’ this year

While they have raced under multiple guises, including Alfa Romeo, Sauber are indisputably a historic team in Formula 1. They will reach 500 race starts next year after entering the sport in 1993.

In that period, they’ve won a race (through Robert Kubica at the 2008 Canadian GP) and bagged 27 podiums. That’s more than Aston Martin, Alpine, RB and Haas combined.

But that’s partly why many have found their 2024 situation so desperate. Jacques Villeneuve has accused Sauber of ‘not even trying’ as they focus on ‘surviving until Audi take over’.

Valtteri Bottas, a 67-time podium finisher, hasn’t finished higher than 15th since Canada. Bottas is confident of staying at Audi for 2025, with Nico Hulkenberg already signed to the other seat.