Nasr gets new Sauber chassis for Russian GP

2016 Russian Grand Prix

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Felipe Nasr will use a new chassis for the fourth race of the season, Sauber has confirmed.

The Brazilian driver has been unhappy with the balance of his car since the beginning of the season. He finished 20th last time out in China after a power steering problem in practice hampered his pre-race preparations.

“I still hope we can sort out the issues I had during the last race weekends,” he said. “I am confident that the team is doing its best and everyone is working hard.”

Following the Chinese Grand Prix Nasr said he was “still struggling with the same issues that I’ve been having in the last couple of events” in the car. “I still feel that we have a lot to do in the car to bring back the pace,” he added.

Nasr had one of his strongest races of the season in last year’s Russian Grand Prix. “I had a great race weekend in Sochi,” he said. “We took every opportunity we could and maximised what we had. In the end I was classified in sixth, which was my second best result in Formula One.”

Sauber is yet to score any points so far this season.

2016 Russian Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
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    14 comments on “Nasr gets new Sauber chassis for Russian GP”

    1. Time for Nasr to step up his game. Having already taken Ericssons mechanics from last year, hired new expert engineers and now demanding himself a new chassis in the already strained team hes rapidly running out of excuses to why Ericsson has been outperforming him since midseason last year. His money can only take him so far.

      1. @rethla That’s harsh. Even when Ericsson was out-performing Nasr as you say in the second half of last season it was by thousandths or hundredths of a second/lap. And even during that period Nasr had some very strong races like Russia when he beat Ericsson soundly and in the end overall for last season he maintained a slight edge.

        Then comes the testing. Nasr is happy with the car all is well no handling problems

        Now comes this season, a new chassis, not the one from testing and suddenly it’s up to a second/lap difference. Something doesn’t add up here. It’s quite possible to assume that if the team is having problems, one chassis is not exactly the same as the other

        1. @montreal95 Nasr may have been happy with the test car but we never got any driver to driver comparison from those sessions. Also its Nasr that gets the new car by choice becouse he wants the new car and let Ericsson have the used test chassis with milage on it. Comicly Ericsson is offering Nasr to swap chassis at any time to see whats the problem whenever anyone brings it up ;)
          Nasr is the clear number one driver in everything but performance which is sad to see. It will be very interesting to see how this unfolds with Nasrs new chassis in Russia.

          1. @rethla Firstly, chassis with mileage on it? That’s not how this works in F1. It’s not like your regular car which gets worse with mileage on it. When the car returns to base after each race it’s stripped down and any parts which might show fatigue are replaced and the monocoque is tested for structural rigidity. A good chassis will stay a good chassis for quite a lot of races and it’s not uncommon for drivers to spend the whole season on just two. This in contradiction to engines which do lose some power as they age, but even then it’s not a huge power loss nowadays, unlike 10 years ago

            Secondly, all we hear is how Ericsson offered to swap chassis. But did we hear that Nasr refused the offer? We hear nothing from Nasr’s side, nor the team’s. It would be a no brainer for Nasr to agree, based on all the evidence, and by not agreeing he’s giving his haters ammunition. So was it him who didn’t agree to swap, or did the team forbid it? Because the team would look ridiculous either way the swap turns out. To forbid the swap and “minimize the losses” in that respect is only logical from their point of view. Wouldn’t fit with your “Nasr Num 1” theory

            Lastly about that theory. in 2015 Nasr out-qualified, out-raced and out-scored Ericsson when you take the whole season into account and not your select favorite number of races. Look up F1Fanatic’s end of season team-mates comparison if you don’t believe me. It’s only fair that the team gives him the benefit of the doubt when all of a sudden he’s miles behind for 3 straight races. No need for such theories as yours to explain the team’s behavior

            We’ll see in Russia if I’m right, or you’re right and Nasr inexplicably “lost it” in the fortnight between testing and Aus GP

            1. @montreal95, with regards to chassis performance, a number of drivers have chosen to go through an entire season with the same chassis – for example, Alonso used the same chassis for all of his races in 2006. Some teams have even reused a chassis that have previously been involved in accidents, provided that the damage was slight and could be repaired – for example, Webber once reused an old chassis that Vettel had crashed (and given Webber then went on to win races with that same chassis, it didn’t seem to be holding him back at all).

            2. @anon Quite right. I was being intentionally conservative in my reply to the post above. A chassis can do of course a whole season without problem if need be, but even my conservative assessment shows that claims of Sauber somehow favoring Nasr over Ericsson by letting Ericsson stay on an “old” chassis are baseless

            3. @montreal95 Ofc the driver dont choose if they swap chassis and it wouldnt make any sense. I said Ericsson was joking about it but maybe you missed that part. The only thing Nasr says about it is that they can see Ericssons chassis is better but they cant see why.

              Noone is denying Ericsson had a rough start of 2015. Not me, not the team, not Ericsson. When he was good the car broke and vice versa. Just like Rosberg Ericsson has outperformed his teammate ever since however and im perfectly up to date on that whitout reading f1 fanatics 10 line summary of Ericsson season.

    2. Well, hard to judge, but team is not at 100% capacity, atleast on the outside. So new chassis should come at race two not four.

      Now we will see what the issue is. If its a driver give Vandoorne a call. He is pretty quick.

      1. @jureo Who’s gonna pay for that? Without Banco do Brasil the team folds tomorrow

        1. Its Sauber, having 3 drivers is not their all time best.

          1. @jureo Hh nice! Well, it worked one time. And they still had to pay VdG off. Sutil too IIRC. They paid it up with Nasr and Ericsson’s sponsors, no doubt. Who’s money they gonna pay-off Nasr with? Vandoorne’s? ROFL

    3. Im with montreal95, something should br wrong, they’ve been really equals performance wise since day 1, and now the gap is about 1 sec. I think if max vets tapped started to lap 1 sec from Sainz and complained about his chassis no one would ever argue about this, but since it comes from a well backed driver…. I do believe he’s not just another pay driver, but a decent driver instead, with good potential.

    4. Good decision to give him a new chassis. He should be given the benifit of the doubt, there might actually be something wrong, and if not at least its clear what/who the issue is.

    5. The competition between them will be very interesting.

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