Aston Martin scores 257 more points in one year: the green monster has swallowed Sauber

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We think back a year: Alfa-Sauber, sixth in the World Cup, comes to the final in Abu Dhabi with a five-point lead over Aston Martin-Mercedes. Understood? No.

Guest of honor Peter Sauber (80) warned Blick at the time: “This could still be very tight!” And the former team owner, who still suffers at every race, was right.

Thanks to the five points from Stroll (8th) and Vettel (10th), the green monster can equalize to 55:55. But Bottas’ 5th place in Imola decides the game in Hinwil’s favor. Fortunately, because Vettel was only 0.4 seconds away from Ricciardo’s golden ninth place in the McLaren at the finish.

Now it is 273:16

A year later. With 273 points, Aston Martin is still chasing McLaren’s 4th place in the World Championship (284). And Alfa-Sauber, with 16 points, is still fighting against relegation to the tenth and last place, which the other Ferrari partner team (Haas) occupies with 12 points.

Compared to 2022, the Alfa-Sauber has 257 points less than Aston Martin! What happened there? Well, while the Hinwilers don’t exactly produce a supercar with the C43 and continue to drive around with Bottas and Zhou, the British brought a great fighter and motivator to the Silverstone factory in the Fernando Express Alonso (42). Eight podium places and 200 points are a good result despite some setbacks. In addition, there are 73 points from owner son Lance Stroll, who often seems listless and underestimated. 73 points – that’s only four fewer than the total of the last four teams!

The green monster is getting ready

Aston Martin, formed from Force India and Racing Point, has undergone a massive upgrade since 2021, building a new hotel-style factory and adding hundreds of people.

Key employees were poached from Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari. Some of them are still not allowed to work, but are already handsomely paid. The fact that the competition asked about the budget limit (about 150 million dollars without the salaries of the three highest paid employees, etc.) is the problem of the FIA, which keeps a close eye on all expenditure.

Ecclestone: “Clean – a miracle!”

So Sauber and Audi know the way forward. Unfortunately, it is still very difficult to attract good English engineers to the lonely Formula 1 island of Switzerland. And that is one of the cornerstones of success!

As former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone (93) told Blick more than ten years ago: “For me it is a miracle that Sauber continues to survive with its location. That’s why I always took my hat off to Peter Sauber!” After Ferrari, McLaren and Williams, Sauber (joined in 1993) is the fourth oldest Formula 1 team.

Source : Blick