C30 Launch Review - Brighter looking future for Sauber?

Brighter looking future for Sauber?

Barry Hobart gives his view on the Sauber C30 which has been launched yesterday morning in Valencia! Over to Barry...

“Look at Peter Sauber’s face, he looks so happy because he finally has a car with some identity. I felt so sorry for Peter this time last year, he was really enjoying his semi retirement before BMW pulled the plug on the Hinwil based squad and he had to spring into action to save them.

Fair play to the man though, after a poor start, they pulled off some remarkable results and a sublime Kobayashi excelled towards the end of the season. That drive in Japan was one of the highlights of my year. And yet by the end they still had the plainest car on the grid. A few one race sponsorship deals with Burger King gave them some backing but apart from that they was pretty much on their own, even the crew were wearing plain white shirts that looked like the BMW sponsors had been  tippexed out.

But would you just look at them this year. Flashes of black, red, orange and even two shades of blue finally bring this car to life. Yes, yes they may be small flashes but at least it is something. Sauber have said that the group is now stable thanks to the new sponsorship, mostly from Mexican telecoms company Telemex, I think they might have Sergio Perez to thank for that.

The C30 begins with a higher, concaved and pointier nose than last year’s C29 and the front wing is attached with vertical supports rather than last year’s forward angled supports. The side pods have also been designed differently with the air intakes being much squarer than before, this has enabled the radiators to be more vertical which allows the side pods to be sculpted more aggressively.

One thing that stands out for me though is the 4 legged roll hoop. I have never seen the air intake held up like that before, maybe by two legs, but not by four. Has anybody else?

Sauber have confirmed that they will be using KERS provided by Ferrari and they have included a blown diffuser in the design for the car. Will it be enough to get them back up the front of the grid on a regular basis, with some talented drivers and finally the backing they deserve, I think Peter and his men can pull off something special.”

- Barry Hobart

Posted by James Wilson. - Follow him on twitter @enterf1.

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