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Small updates for Sauber

ESPNF1 Staff
October 21, 2011 « Hamilton expects to be competitive | Boullier wants Renault discipline »
The C30 will have modified front and rear wings as Sauber seeks to improve on its scoreless Korean Grand Prix © Getty Images
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Sauber technical director James Key says the team will have some small updates to the front and rear wings for the Indian Grand Prix.

Sauber is part of a tight battle for sixth place in the constructors' championship, with Force India currently holding sixth on 49 points while Sauber is just nine points behind and Toro Rosso another three points further back. As a result Key says the team will be bringing upgrades to India, and will have a lot to learn in terms of downforce levels and tyre usage.

"The track itself looks pretty interesting, as it has one long straight and a fairly high downforce requirement in some of the winding bits at the back," Key said. "The track is not unlike other new circuits. There seem to be some overtaking opportunities, but the drivers need to learn where that works and how effective the DRS is. The downforce level is most likely similar to recent events.

"We will have the soft and the hard tyre compound there. It's quite some time since we ran the hard compound, so we'll have to see how that goes. A lot depends on track temperatures, but given the nature of the track with several highly loaded corners, it could be that the hard tyre will warm up okay and last. Maybe the soft will struggle, but you never really know until you're there. On the car we will have some small modifications to the rear wings and some small updates on the front wing."

Key also said that Sauber had managed to discover the reasons behind its lack of competitiveness in Korea.

"After our performance in Korea was clearly below our own expectations, we analysed all the data carefully and came to the conclusion that we underestimated the limitation on the front axle and front tyres. As a result we suffered from too much understeer, which resulted in over loading the front tyres."

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