Hulkenberg expects Sauber to do better in Monaco

2013 Monaco Grand Prix

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Nico Hulkenberg says he expects Sauber to perform better in next week’s Monaco Grand Prix.

Sauber have had a poor start to the 2013 season, scoring just five points over the first five races, 36 less than last year. Hulkenberg has only made it into Q3 once while team mate Esteban Gutierrez has gone out in Q1 three times.

However Hulkenberg is optimistic about the team’s chances in Monaco: “In terms of performance, I’m quite positive,” hesaid.

“We’ve seen that the softer tyre compounds suit us quite well, which gives me confidence we’ll have a good weekend.”

Sauber ran a new rear wing in Spain and the team believe Hulkenberg was on course for eighth place before his collision in the pits with Jean-Eric Vergne. Gutierrez narrowly missed out on a points finish.

The team will add further new parts to their last upgrade package at next week’s race.

2013 Monaco Grand Prix

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Image © Sauber

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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9 comments on “Hulkenberg expects Sauber to do better in Monaco”

  1. MB (@muralibhats)
    17th May 2013, 15:14

    every team basically expects/thinks there will be opportunities in Monaco.

  2. I reckon Nico is putting a brave face when it comes to interviews about Saubers performance. He must be kicking himself every time he sees a Force India out-qualify and out-race him.

    I know it’s early days but Ricciardo, Bianchi and di Resta are on good form at the moment so if any of the big seats need filling, it wouldn’t surprise me if those 3 are considered over Hulk.

    1. I’d say it’s kind of character building though, and he’s still continuing to impress even in the Sauber. It is a shame that he’s made a step down (although hindsight is a wonderful thing) – but there’s something about being a Force India driver that brings a curse with it too – it seems that if they don’t get dropped, they stay there forever, never progressing to a top team. Will be interesting to see where Di Resta ends up next year though.

  3. Lets show it Hulk, Sauber badly needs to get on top of the season!

  4. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    17th May 2013, 18:30

    Teams must relu just on strategy, it’s so hard to overtake in Monaco that quali is more important than in other tracks… quali and keeping the tyres (in Monaco one more pit stop than rivals can be a clear game over)

    1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      17th May 2013, 18:32

      rely ( %/W% keyboard!!!)

  5. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
    17th May 2013, 18:51

    The only reason anyone could fathom a good for Hulkenberg is because it is a driver’s circuit, and the Hulk, being one of the very best on the grid, can certainly make a difference. That is if Hulkenberg’s head is in the right place after he took what seems now a seemingly poorly conceived move to Sauber. Although saying that, at the time it certainly seemed a good idea to me. Firstly, it was a move closer to Ferrari, but more importantly, when Hulkenberg signed for Sauber they were a team with a seemingly exponentially positive performance curve. They’d built a great car in the C31 with revenue from 2011’s 7th placed WCC ranking, a car with great tyre-saving attributes perfect for the Pirelli era and had earned the hefty revenue of a 6th placed WCC ranking in 2012 with which to build the C32, although some team members probably felt a bit sore knowing that 5th place should have been theirs. The C32 SHOULD be a great car, and that is why Hulkenberg moved there, and it is also why is also shamefully thought that Nico could even win a race this year. He didn’t know that Sauber would choose to waste their new sizable, and rather Mexican tasting technical budget by picking up the C31, observing all of its preferable attributes, and then throwing it away in the pursuit of pointlessly narrow sidepods and a whole load of grey paint. Did Hulkenberg know that Sauber would release a perfectly solid racing driver in the form of Kobayashi in favour of a nine year-old that we might as well be calling Kazuki Nakijima? No. Hulkenberg was sat in a ticking financial time-bomb that was Force India in 2012, and quite rightfully saw Sauber as an Arcadian route to success, stardom and to stealing Felipe Massa’s seat. I would have done the same thing…although saying that I’m an idiot…

    1. @william-brierty you have pretty much covered it there! The race pace on that thing isn’t looking too bad, though…

    2. I might also add that some are putting the radical change in direction to the fact they are also using the car as a ‘stepping stone’ for 2014, with the low nose and reduced dependance on coanda: http://www.f1technical.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=14599&start=600

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