How Sauber turned it around

Last year Sauber was last. Their future looked bleak but they managed to turn it around.

They finished 8th in the constructor's championship and although that may not sound like a brilliant result, their performances were solid in the second half of the season and young driver Charles Leclerc was responsible for Sauber being the fourth fastest car on a number of occasions by finishing 7th in the last three races.

Team Manager, Beat Zehnder, tells Formula1.com. “Money plays the crucial role, especially in F1. You can pay suppliers and have the finances to develop the car, to use the tools that you have. We had a fantastic wind tunnel which we didn’t use for almost two consecutive years as we didn’t even have the money to power it.”

“Last year, we were the smallest team in the paddock. Now we are P5 in the pit stop rankings,” says Zehnder. “The end goal should be to have quick and consistent pit stops. We can be very proud – these days a regular pit stop is under two seconds.”

Sauber has veteran racer Kimi Raikkonen joining the team for the 2019 season and they will hope that he can help continue the increase of Sauber's performance.