Marcus Ericsson believes Sauber’s rate of progress, and its ability to swiftly understand and assimilate new components, has made it one of Formula 1’s best developers in 2018.
Sauber spent much of 2017 mired at the rear of the field but took on title sponsorship from Alfa Romeo over the winter and overhauled its design concept with the C37.
The team has returned to midfield contention this year as part of its long-term plan under Frederic Vasseur, with Sauber having scored points in five of the eight Grands Prix held.
Sauber also adopted its update philosophy this year, opting to bring regular, and smaller, upgrade packages as opposed to infrequent but larger upgrades.
“I think it’s been extremely impressive this season,” said Ericsson on Sauber’s form.
“From the first test we had a completely new car, new concept aerodynamically and mechanically and everything, so we had a lot of work.
“But the way the team has worked and improved throughout the first part of the season is very impressive and it shows the good people we have and when we have a financial platform that’s stable the team can really do great work.
“We have great facilities in Switzerland, that’s the result of great teamwork, guys in the factory have done a great job to bring updates to each race weekend.
“And also here on track we managed to understand them in a good way to use them in a good way.
“And that’s been the key, every weekend we brought some new stuff, we’ve brought some updated more or less every weekend.
“Not massive things but just small things all the time that just help the performance, combined with understanding the car more and more.
“I think the rate of the development, if you look at the grid, we’re probably, if not the best, for sure one of the best, I think we can be very happy with that.”
Ericsson added that Sauber’s form across the last few Grands Prix confirms that it can be a competitive midfield runner in all circumstances.
“I think the midfield is tight and we’ve – Charles [Leclerc] – has scored points in quite a few races, me in Bahrain, I think we’ve covered all types of tracks where we’ve scored points,” he said.
“I don’t really see now specific tracks where we’ll be weaker, I think we’re in the mix in the midfield.
“It’s so close that if you get it a bit wrong with the set-up or something like that then you will not be in the points but if you get it right you will score points.
“But we’re in the mix and it feels like we will be there if we keep doing what we’ve done.”
