The Sauber squad has arrived at Suzuka for this weekend’s 2024 Japanese GP after pitstop issues have blighted each of its showings in the opening three rounds of the new season.
The problem concerns wheelnuts getting crossthreaded during changes, which meant the team made adjustments to its procedures for the Melbourne round last time out.
But a reoccurrence of the problem at Bottas’s first stop there meant it ran to nearly 30s and a successful second service for the Finn in Australia was then undermined by a wheelnut rolling across the pitlane and Sauber being fined €5000.
Sauber team representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi had said ahead of the Suzuka race that the team had been working “day and night back at base in Hinwil to resolve our pitstop issues”, which Bottas explained meant “progress” on “modifications made to the procedure and some of the materials that we could [use]”.
“Some measures have been taken, but it’s not still 100% fixed unfortunately,” he replied when asked by Autosport if he was still expecting Sauber to face further pitstop issues at Suzuka.
“But, again, the chance of having an issue should be lower. Basically, it is an issue that we didn’t know it before the season that it would be an issue and it’s not a quick fix.
“But there is a 100% fix planned hopefully for China. Still not 100% sure. But here, extra measures have been taken on that.”
Bottas also said Sauber had “apologised, which is fair” for his delayed stop in Melbourne, which he felt cost a shot to score the team’s first points of 2024.
Source: Autosport