Ready or Not, Here Comes the 2005 Season
Sauber Team 2005
By Jamie Makin
February 26 2005
For race fans the start of the new season can never come quickly enough but for the team there's never really enough time to fully prepare. SAUBER's final preseason test at Imola was snowed out last week but they say it won't affect their preparation for the season opener in Melbourne.
Winter testing was more successful for the team than they are generally given credit for. Despite their struggles in Barcelona and a feared flaw in the C24 chassis, the new car has proven be very reliable and quite fast under most conditions.
The other big concern was Jacques Villeneuve's apparent struggle to get up to speed with the team. He admitted struggling with setup and needed more time to sort things out. The final test being cut short by bad weather did not help matters, but Jacques seems to remain confident. "Even though the running time was cut short, we did make some significant progress, particularly towards the end," the French-Canadian explained. "We were able to try a couple of new set-ups that enabled me to improve my lap times. Most of our preparation for the first three races had already been done, so the short running over the weekend didn't really affect us."
Jacques will take a short break before meeting up with the team in Melbourne, Australia. He is looking forward to a new lease on life in Formula One with the SAUBER PETRONAS team. "Only two weeks to go - I'm feeling well prepared and looking forward to the season," he said. "The first few races are always exciting."
His young teammate Felipe Massa is also well prepared for the new season and not concerned over the cancellation of the Imola test. "We will suffer no impact on our preparations for the forthcoming championship," he explained. "I was able to complete 106 laps on Saturday and could manage to work in almost every area we had planned. It would be much worse to lose two days in Jerez, where we still had too many things to try."
Felipe consistently put in top five times against other teams over the winter and was consistently quicker than his veteran teammate. "With the exception of Barcelona, where we never exploited our true potential, our tests were always quite good," Felipe said. "After Barcelona, we did some more wind tunnel testing in Hinwil. We were able to solve the problems and I did a lot of running in the next venues. If you compare to the last year, we are now in much better shape. In 2004 we knew that the first rounds would be tough for us. This time we are in another level. I really think we can finish steadily in the points on a competitive way, not depending on others' problems."
Felipe believes that the Swiss team's reliability will still give them an advantage, particularly in the first few races. "In general a lot of cars struggle to make it to the chequered flag on the first GPs, and I guess we don't have to worry about it," said the Brazilian. "In fact, our reliability was strong in pre-season testing. I didn't have a single failure and could reach nice and easy the average of more than 1.200 km that the engines must last this year for two race weekends. All in all, that is why I reckon our chances in Melbourne and Sepang are solid."
Jacques was very critical of Felipe in his rookie season in 2002 but has come to respect his progress since that time. "Felipe has matured and has now more experience," Jacques said in a recent interview with motorsport.com. "He has done some good things recently meaning that he has improved, which is good."
Jacques appears to have a new outlook on life after his year's absence from the grid and will be working to help improve the team and Felipe. "He will also be able to count on me as I have many years of experience behind me," Jacques said, "and it will certainly count helping the team to progress this year."