Sauber is one team bringing upgrades to Imola. The team are hoping that these upgrades will fix the wheel-nut issues that have plagued their season so far.
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From the first race of the season, Sauber has faced an issue of wheel-nuts being prone to cross threading. This has made their pit stops range from 5 seconds to 52 seconds.
In Bahrain, Valtteri Bottas had a 52 second pit stop. Ruining his race and earning him the second slowest pit stop in F1 history. He also holds the record for the slowest ever pit stop from back when he was with Mercedes. It was a two-day pit stop.
After seven pit stops, the pair of drivers had been still for 100.1 seconds. In comparison, after 34 pit stops, Carlos Sainz had only been still for 98 seconds.
Despite both drivers having pace behind them, they could not gain any meaningful results. While the back half of the field has been close in terms of performance and points, the two Sauber drivers are currently P18 and P20 in the championship.
Alunni Bravi, the managing director of Sauber, said about the upgrades, “we will have all the new parts to ultimately fix the problem with pit stops.”
However, the wheel nut is not the only thing being changed for Imola. Bravi also mentioned how there are big upgrades to the general performance of the car.
“So I think that this will determine the next three-four races and the possibility for us to score points or not.”
The team is trying to make big decisions concerning their driver line-up for 2025. Recently singing Nico Hulkenburg to the team, they now have to figure out their second seat.
Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu both have contracts expiring at the end of this season. Although the Chinese driver has allegedly attracted interest from Haas.