Sauber chief admits which race in 2023 was an ‘enormous disappointment’ for the team

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Sauber team representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi has admitted one race during the 2023 season was an ‘enormous disappointment’ for the team this season.

It was a tough campaign for Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu as they narrowly avoided finishing bottom of the Constructors’ Championship.

Speaking to Corriere dello Sport, Alunni Bravi was reflecting on a tough year for the Swiss team.

Known as Alfa Romeo last year, the team’s performance over the course of the year simply wasn’t good enough.

Despite all of his experience, Bottas failed to challenge for points for the majority of the season, while Zhou Guanyu could only match his points tally from his maiden F1 campaign.

It meant that when opportunities did arise for Sauber to score points, they had to take their chances.

Alunni Bravi has admitted his disappointment at how they missed out at one race in particular last season.

The team is in transition now and with no recognised automotive sponsor heading into 2024, it feels like the manufacturer is gearing up for their partnership with Audi to be completed in 2026.

Whether Bottas and Zhou are going to be their driver pairing by then is yet to be seen.

There’s another name on the grid who’s expected to be in pole position for the role by then.

Alunni Bravi admits 2023 Sauber disappointment

Asked what his team’s biggest mistake of the season was, Alunni Bravi said: “Rather than a mistake, I would speak of enormous disappointment: in Hungary, we had the best qualifying of the season: Zhou 5th and Bottas 7th.

“There was the possibility of taking heavy points in the race. Instead, we had a problem with the car at the start by Zhou: a software error in the brake by wire mapping caused the engine to go into safe mode.

“The driver started slowly and ended up hindering Bottas who was behind him! In just a few corners we lost any chance of ranking! “

The disappointment of missing out on points in Hungary was followed up by two more pointless races before Bottas finished 10^th at Monza.

Audi will be watching closely to see how the team get on in 2024 to see just how much work needs to be done before they join the grid.

The thought of another strong works team on the grid will fill a lot of F1 fans with excitement.

However, the German giants will have no intention of joining Formula 1 as backmarkers when the time finally comes.