(Sauber F1 Team via Twitter)
The Sauber F1 Team has played down concerns over their new cars lack of pace during last week's opening winter test in Jerez, Spain.
The Swiss based squad have two new drivers for 2014 in Nico Hulkenberg and Adrian Sutil and over the course of the four day test they struggled to get heat into the tyres as a result the team were not able to show their new cars full potential.
The opening test of the season is NOT about performance however, as it is the first time that a team runs their car to the maximum as they primarily work on set up and reliability with their new car. The team like everyone else did suffer minor technical problems, however compared to the the Renault powered team's such as Red Bull Racing, Sauber are ahead of the game as they managed to get plenty of mileage under their belts.
For the next winter test in Bahrain in just over two week's the C33 will feature an updated aero package. The car also features a new brake by wire system for the rear wheels.
It is far too early in the pre-season schedule to be predicting what is going to happen. We still have teo more winter tests before the start of the 2014 season, and just because a number of team's struggled in the opening test does not automatically mean that they will struggle in the second test.
As in Sauber's case, team's will be bringing updates to their new car for the next two tests and indeed for the first race of the new season. The development race this season might be a little slower this season as teams get to grips with the technology. For example, at present it currently takes 6 hours to change a V6 turbocharged engine as the new new powertrains are extremely complex
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