Sauber duo upbeat on revised C29

Date published : 02 Apr 2010 - 10:53:18

Sauber drivers Kamui Kobayashi and Pedro de la Rosa were encouraged by signs that the team has taken a step forward in Malaysia, after ending Friday practice in 11th and 13th places.The Swiss team has had a torrid start to the 2010 campaign after promising so much in winter testing, but has significantly modified its C29 car in a bid to find more speed notably through revisions to its McLaren-style F-duct' venting system, which is designed to reduce drag on the straights and boost top speed.It was a really positive Friday as we were able to do a lot of testing and tried different things including our new rear wing system, said de la Rosa.Balance-wise, I am happier with the car now than I was in Australia and I enjoy the high-speed corners of the Sepang circuit quite a lot.However, we need to find some more pace."Kobayashi echoed his team-mate's assessment: "The car seems to be better than last week in Melbourne, but obviously we need to keep working hard to find a better pace," said the Japanese driver.Sauber's technical director Willy Rampf added: We used both sessions to test different configurations of our new rear wing.We will analyse the data here at the track and in the factory in Hinwil to decide on the next steps.In preparation for the race we did long runs with the option tyres to get an understanding of their behaviour when we have a heavy car and a very high track temperature.Overall it was a productive day without any technical problems. We were able to complete our planned programme.