Sauber were thrilled with Kamui Kobayashi‘s drive at Valencia on which he overtook Fernando Alonso and Sebastien Buemi on the last lap of the race, and if their driver Pedro de la Rosa is to be believed, they are set to do even better next weekend at Silverstone.

The Spaniard said:

“We are all going to a new Silverstone and have to be open minded. The changes to the track look very nice and I expect its character, with plenty of medium and high speed corners, has remained unchanged, and this should suit our car more than the Valencia circuit did. I’m very much looking forward to the British Grand Prix.”

Pedro de la Rosa

Kamui Kobayashi unsurprisingly also likes the high-speed corners at Silverstone:

“I have a very good feeling for the race in Silverstone. I like this track a lot and I’m looking forward to seeing the new parts. The high speed corners make it one of my favourite circuits. Also there is always a good crowd, and I think this time with their fellow countrymen leading the championship they will be very excited. I like going to England, and London is a great city anyway.”

Kamui Kobayashi

Sauber’s technical director James Key revealed that the team have been analysing the new layout of the Silverstone circuit to get the best out of the C29 as possible:

“I’m looking forward to see how the new section affects the track. It was never a circuit that was easy to overtake on. It could be that the new section has some influence on that, but we won’t know until we get there. We’ve been working on what we think we need to do for the new layout. We will have a busy Friday to try and cover all the options to find out what is best for the modified track. What’s important there is high speed and medium speed stability of the car. The first sector, particularly, is dominated by these kinds of corners. It’s important that the car is competitive through Copse and then the winding section afterwards. There’s only really two or three places where braking is of high importance. It’s not a high braking energy circuit, so braking stability is less of an issue to consider, but we have to see how the new section affects that. I think we also have to keep an eye on the aerodynamic efficiency with the longer straights, so there is a bit to learn but also a lot which is familiar. I’m looking forward to the weekend.”

James Key