2015 Season Review: Sauber

The 2015 season saw the Sauber team move up from tenth place to eighth place in the Constructors Championship. The 2014 season saw the Sauber team clinch tenth place in the Constructors Championship in behind their rivals Toro Rosso, Force India and McLaren.

With the Swiss-based outfit not scoring any points since its debut season in 1993 with ex drivers Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutierrez, Sauber had a lot of work to do to catch up to their rivals and improve their performances on the track heading into the 2015 season.

As well as experiencing issues on the track, financial troubles surrounded Sauber for the majority of the 2014 season which impacted which drivers they would sign for this season. Sauber then announced that ex Caterham driver Marcus Ericsson and rookie Felipe Nasr would be racing for the team; bringing in the much needed funds required to run the team to a professional standard.

Looking at the team's results this year, it is hard to imagine that Sauber failed to score any points in the 2014 season. Even at the start of pre-season testing, Sauber appeared to have improved in the pre-season tests even though the tests do not reveal too much about the true performance respective to the rest of the field.

Going into the new season, perhaps Australia was the best chance for the Sauber team to collect points as pre-season testing showed that they had a strong foundation on which to build the C34 on from the C33. But before the season could even begin for them, the Sauber team found themselves embroiled in a legal battle with former test driver and ex Caterham driver Gideo van der Garde.

Over the course of the race weekend in Melbourne, Gideo van der Garde won his legal case against the Sauber team after the Supreme Court of Victoria upheld his claim that he should race at the event that was brought before a court in Switzerland previously.

Van der Garde sought legal action against the team after he believed that the team had breached his contract that was signed last season by signing former Caterham driver Marcus Ericsson and former Williams Test driver Felipe Nasr for this season.

With the Sauber team appealing the case yet again and believing that there wasn't enough sufficient time for Van der Garde to have a car that would fully prepared to race for him in Australia, Judge Croft stated that Sauber had to provide van der Garde a car after ruling in favour of van der Garde.

This then resulted in Sauber and Van der Garde talking behind the scenes where a settlement was reached (which is rumoured that Gideo received a £11 million payout as compensation) which allowed Nasr and Ericsson to participate in the weekend as planned which saw Sauber score their first points of the season with Nasr finishing in fifth place in his first ever F1 race and the team's best finish of the year and Ericsson scoring his first ever points with an eighth place finish.

In the next 5 races of the season, the Sauber team finished out of the points in Malaysia with Nasr and Ericsson retiring the car, Nasr scoring points in China and Monaco, Ericsson scoring a point in Bahrain and Hungary and both drivers finishing out of the points in Spain, Canada, Austria and Silverstone.

After the summer break, we sadly saw Sauber slip further back down the grid and struggle to extract pace and performance from the car due to a lack of money that would be required to keep up the small glimpses of performance we saw during the first half of the season.

But they managed to start the second half of the season well with a point with Ericsson at Spa; with Nasr narrowly missing out in eleventh place. Ericsson managed to gain another two points at the next race in Italy. But Ericsson finished out of the points in Singapore as his team mate managed to secure yet another point for the team. Both drivers struggled in the next few races and finished in eighteenth and twentieth in Japan, Ericsson finishing out of the points in Russia and retiring in Austin with Nasr scoring points in Russia and Austin.

In the last three races of the season at Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi, neither driver failed to score any points but managed to end the season with points to their tally and allowing Sauber to move two places in the Constructors Championship this year.

Sauber was a lot better than their performance in 2015 compared to the 2014 season and showed that they made a good step forward; even though they don't have the budget that is required to make the necessary steps forward to become more competitive. This season with their driver line up of Nasr and Ericsson saw Sauber gaining places in the Constructors standings to tenth place but also the team did manage to score points and put the 2014 season firmly behind them.

Even though Sauber are known for being the 'underdogs' who will challenge hard to score points in a season and while they managed to achieve this at selected races this season; they will want to build upon this for the 2016 season and try and move as much as possible up the grid to challenge the midfield; where they belong.

Felipe Nasr 27 points/ 13th in the Driver's Championship

With Sauber announcing GP2 driver Felipe Nasr this season and bringing substantial sponsorship with him from Bianco do Brasil, many expected Nasr not only to make mistakes in his first rookie season in the sport but also try to challenge his more experienced team mate as well.

Nasr never had the car beneath him to be able to shine all season but he took his chances when they came and he beat Ericsson throughout the season and finished ten times ahead on qualifying performance and also finishing races too.

Nasr started the first half of the season with an amazing fifth place finish in Australia, an eighth place finish in China and an ninth place finish in Monaco. Nasr finished in twelfth place in Malaysia, Bahrain and Spain. Before the summer break, Nasr finished out of the points in eleventh in Austria and Hungary and retired at Silverstone.

In the second half of the season, Nasr showed signs of improvement and managed to score some much needed points for himself and his team. Nasr finished out of the points at Spa and Italy, fought for the last point in Singapore, struggled massively in Japan, scored two consecutive points finishes in Sochi and Austin and in the final three races of the season in Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi suffered one retirement and finished out of the points in a season where many felt that he wouldn't have scored as many points as he did.

In a rookie season that has been reasonable for him, Nasr has managed to give the Sauber team their best finish of the season by finishing in fifth tin Australia compared to Ericsson's best finish which is a eighth place in the same race. But Nasr overall this season has tried to consistently outperform Ericsson as we all expected that he would and has had a season plagued by reliability and mistakes but has still managed to get the upper-hand come Sunday afternoons when it matters in the race.

Marcus Ericsson 9 points / 18th in Driver's Championship

In my opinion, Ericsson was extremely lucky to have been signed for Sauber for the 2015 season after a dismal first season in the sport with the Caterham team. Many pundits and fans hoped that the second season would help him progress as a driver. And I will state this to be fair to Ericsson, he hasn't done a lot wrong, he has managed to score some points along the way, he just isn't very quick in comparison to most F1 drivers.

As a result of this, it is very difficult to dissect just what Gutierrez has achieved in his second season in the sport. As with Nasr, Gutierrez never had the car beneath him to be able to shine this season as often as he would have liked. Even though it was expected that Nasr would try to outperform and out-qualify him, Ericsson has actually failed to challenge him throughout the season with Nasr finishing ahead in Qualifying and also finishing races too.

At the season opener in Australia, Ericsson scored his best finish of the season with a eighth place finish behind his team mate and scoring his first points in the sport. In the next few races of the season, Ericsson retired in Malaysia but bounced back to score a point in the next round in China.

Three fourteenth place finishes in Bahrain, Spain and Canada alongside a thirteenth place finish in Monaco highlighted Ericsson struggling with the car as Nasr scored points in Monaco respectively. Before the summer break, Ericsson finished out of the points in Austria and Silverstone but scored the final point in Hungary.

As we headed into the second half of the season, Ericsson continued to struggle to extract pace and performance from the car while Nasr at least attempted to try and get Sauber into a position to try and score points. Ericsson finished in the points with a tenth place finish in Belgium ahead of his teammate, backed that up with ninth place in Italy, finished out of the points in Singapore and Japan.
In the final four races of the season, Ericsson retired in Sochi and Austin and finished in twelfth place in Mexico, sixteenth place in Brazil and in fourteenth place Abu Dhabi; with no further points to his tally this season.

In a season that has been slightly disappointing, Gutierrez has not managed to give the Sauber team their best finish of the season by finishing in eighth place in Australia compared to Nasr's best finish which is fifth place in Australia.

But Ericsson overall this season has been beaten in races by Nasr as many would expect him too. However, he has been able to challenge him a little in qualifying which shows that he has maybe shown a small improvement in his performances from his rookie season in the sport last year, but it hasn't been enough in my opinion to retain his seat with the Sauber team for the 2016 season and will have to show once again why he was resigned based on his talent and now on the money that he brings.

In conclusion, due to the poor performance of the C34, it is difficult to assess the performances of both Nasr and Ericsson in terms of results however in comparison to each other as it has been fairly clear that Nasr has won the battle.

I believe that even though Nasr has been challenged in qualifying by his team mate, he has shown that he can deliver where it matters which on the track in the race on a Sunday. Nasr has been the only driver for Sauber who has at least attempted to try and get them into a position to score points especially in the second half of the season.

But ultimately, Nasr hasn't been able to convert these opportunities when it mattered due to retirement and this has been a key factor I believe in Sauber not having the resources or capital that is needed to seriously improve their performances on the track.

Meanwhile, Ericsson may have challenged Nasron the track in qualifying but he could not translate this into race performances on a Sunday. Just like Nasr, he also had a chance to try and challenge for points for Sauber but couldn't take the opportunities due to retiring the car.

To put it simply; Ericsson may have improved a little bit from his first season in the sport, but not enough to secure his drive with the Sauber team next season; even though Ericsson is staying with the team. Meanwhile, Nasr has had a steady first rookie year in the sport and this will only help him gain further confidence in the sport and provide him with the chance to deliver on his potential next season.

But what to expect from Sauber in 2016? It will be hard for them to improve next year. Their eighth place doesn't receive a lot of prize money and their driver line up is consistent and both drivers have settled into the team and have experience under their belts.

But for me personally, there are no inclinations or signs that Sauber will improve from eighth in 2016, even if many pundits and fans like myself hope that they can at least try with all their might to improve one or two places up the pecking order of the Constructors Championship, it could be a very difficult and long road ahead to see Sauber back in the midfield where they truly and deservedly belong. **
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa