Rogue Profile of Sauber

“I made a good start this afternoon and my car felt fine to begin with, but I think I may have had a slow puncture on the right rear on my first set of tyres as Mika Salo was getting close,” Nick explained. “I had him under control, however, and after my first stop I had no trouble keeping ahead of him. Then after a while I began to feel some really strange vibrations in the front end so I had to make an unscheduled stop and then was forced to retire. It’s disappointing because I could have finished sixth today.”

“I thought that the team had called me in on the radio for my first stop, but it turned out that they hadn’t. So when I arrived at the pits nothing was ready, and I had to come in again three laps later,” Heidfeld explained. “Then I got a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane. That was annoying, because I felt that the Renaults were holding us up in the early laps even though my car was oversteering quite a bit. It was better on a low fuel load, but with four stops, what can you do? Altogether, a frustrating afternoon.”

Heidfeld: “I lost a lot of track time and I hope that we can make it up tomorrow.”

“I had a pretty exciting first Monaco Grand Prix. The car had lots of oversteer but I had a good battle with Bernoldi, which unfortunately ended when I braked a bit too late for the Ste Devote corner,” Massa explained. “We both went into the escape road and then I had to do a stop and go penalty. On my 64th lap nothing happened when I braked for Ste Devote, and the car just went straight on into the tyre wall. It was a big impact and I hit my nose on the steering wheel, but otherwise I’m okay. I’ll be leaving tomorrow for the Silverstone test.”

Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld was forced to retire form the race on the twenty-first
lap when he succumbed to suspension damage form an earlier collision when he was
jostled in the mid-field. Coming into the fast chicane on the back of the track
the Sauber’s front suspension collapsed and Heildfeld speared across the track.

It was "brown trousers" time for Ralf Schumacher when the Sauber
flashed across his bow but a collision was avoided after Ralf took to the gravel
trap, a surface that he was beginning to find more comfortable than tarmac!

"The opening laps were really good fun, but my wet tyres quickly lost
efficiency," he explained. "If I had started further back I would
have opted for grooved tyres, but since I was starting well up the grid I took
the safe option. Once I had changed them the car did not feel normal because in
the heavy traffic somebody had moved over and hit my right front wheel. Later
on the suspension broke as a result of that, and I was really lucky not to hit
Ralf (Schumacher) when the car veered out of control."

At the start of the race Frentzen was left standing in his grid thirteenth place
grid spot when his car failed to engage first gear. The problems would persist
and delay him at his pit stop on lap seventeen.

"Right from the start I had a problem when I couldn’t get first gear
on the grid, so I was very slow away. At least I avoided the second corner melee,"
he explained. "Then I lost more time when the engine cut out during my
first pit stop (on lap 17), and after that I was just trying to catch up. It was
not an easy race for us today, and we didn’t get the best from the car. But I
did pass Ralph Firman in Turn Three on the last lap."

On lap thirteen Sauber’s Nick Heildfeld came in for his first stop for "fresh
boots" and fuel. The young German lost precious time when a gear-selection
problem caused his car to stall as he attempted to make a getaway. Fortunately
the car was restarted and he rejoined the race, abet in eleventh place.

"I made up one position at the start, and then several cars came together
in Turn Two. I reacted quickly and was lucky that I was able to go down the inside
of Schumacher and Trulli and avoid everything," Nick said. "For
a while I was running third. Unfortunately, when I selected first gear during
my first pit stop (on lap 13) the engine stalled, which cost me a lot of time.
When I made my second one (on lap 34) I wasn’t sure if the problem had been fixed,
so I opted to make a manual start. Overall, the car was reasonable today, and
at least I scored a point."

Coming into the first corner of the 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix the pace car avoided
the melee to make it through turn one in first position. The Mercedes saloon remained
in the lead until the eighth lap, by which time the track had become dry enough
for the real cars to race with their intermediate tyres both Michelin and Bridgestone
had brought to Interlagos.

As the safety car pulled in Coulthard, pushed home his advantage and began
to pull away. On the other hand, Nick Heidfeld was grinding to a standstill after
his Sauber had developed a terminal problem with its oil system. At least he had
a pleasant drive behind the safety car.

Heinz-Harold Frentzen completed his timed run in Friday’s qualifying session in
1m22.513s, 0.388s faster than his teammate Nick Heidfeld. It was a stunning performance
from the veteran driver given that he had to complete the lap with a disabled
car after its throttle pedal broke when he stamped on it, exiting Variante Alta.

"Nick was struggling to find a good balance until this afternoon but that
worked out all right," said Sauber’s technical director Willy Rampf.
"The big thing was that Heinz broke the throttle pedal at the Variante
Alta and although he managed to complete his flying lap he did lose some time
as a result."

A section from the FIA Technical Report reads:

‘Except for the uppermost rear wing element of car numbers 16 and 17 (see previous technical report), all car weights and the items checked were found to be in conformity with the 2011 FIA Formula One Technical Regulations.’

The Sauber team decided to appeal against the exclusion but later retracted this after realizing their mistake.