Like Luke said, if there’s a bright center of the F1 universe, Sauber‘s drivers are on the team it’s farthest from. With new owners, upgrades and cash reserves— Well, Monisha had better have those drivers in the South Ridge scoring points by midday, or there’ll be hell to pay. She may feel like heading in to Tosche Station to pick up some power units but I’d imagine she can waste time with her friends when her chores are done.
At the Singapore Grand Prix, it wasn’t what I was hoping for. Finishing 13th and 17th in a race with a safety car and four DNF’s still didn’t gain a single point from the squad that has a new owner, new cash infusion and new upgrades. It was a race I was looking for them to nip a single point, at least, from the jaws of Manor and try to get them on the Constructors’ Championship board. No such luck.
The days of Peter Sauber and Monisha Kaltenborn playing the Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru roles are over, Longbow has arrived and will find new ways to motivate them and they are not as forgiving as Darth Sauber.
It is a case of expectations I suppose and as a fan of Sauber’s, it pains me to see missed opportunity while admitting that this is a tough business—much like building a battle station that can destroy planets. Sauber’s progress, post new owners, will take time to materialize but there was a part of me that was hoping beyond A New Hope that they may snag a point this weekend.
Perhaps I shouldn’t be too surprised when the team bosses post-race review is:
“Being in P14 and P16 on the grid gave us better starting positions than expected. It was unfortunate that Marcus’ race strategy did not pay off, and this was also because he lost time due to other cars in front of him. Felipe put in a good performance and extracted the maximum from his strategy.”
Clearly she’s a woman of few words and chooses to do her talking on the track and as such, she’s been mute this year. The team did acquire Ruth Buscombe who was at Haas F1 as a strategy person so maybe this will help the team find a point with six races left. I like Ruth, I met her once and she’s a delightful person. It was a brief hello but I found her to be a very nice person and I know she’s very talented at race strategy. Let’s hope she comes up with a plan that could get Monisha slightly more energetic in her race review commentary. Ruth has every possibility of being the Rey of Sauber and that’s a good thing:
It’s time for Sauber to bullseye Womp rats in their T-16. If Sauber doesn’t score points this season, maybe we can get creative at Skywalker Ranch and just CG some point finishes in the video or even a podium or two? Hey, don’t get mad at me, Sauber shot first.
As long as the Sauber F1 car is engineered by the Ewoks with best available cheap sticks, stones and split-vine bindings… the Battle for Endor will not bode well.
Yeah, their unit has a bad motivator but this is where they get the really good R2 unit in exchange so things are looking up. Also, the Force is strong in Ruth and I think next year will be a completely different Sauber. :)
Oooh! That provides segue (segway to US lexicon) into a strange example of English Language Etymology. “Ruth” is of course a well used name of old Hebrew root. Old Testament et al. However, in Olde English (~ Chaucer), the word “ruth” was defined as being ‘sympathetic and caring’, whereas the antonym “ruthless” was the exact opposite. Is it not strange (as English etymolgy is so oft…) that in the intervening centuries, the word “ruth” and its nice meaning was lost to the English Language, but “ruthless” (the negative) was not. Even stranger to expalin that on average, negative words remain… Read more »
Ruth is a bit like gruntled isn’t it…
Very similar Dr T, but in this case of English Etymology, I am not sure if there actually was ever usage of a word “gruntled” in the past, as a counterpoint to the still used “disgruntled”.
Parallel word pair example to “Enchanted” vs antonym “Disenchanted”.
I know Bill Bryson did pick up on this case in his “Dictionary of Troublesome Words” book, but I cannot recall what his references and conclusions were in the end. May have to re-read to confirm.
Gruntled: to be un-pissed-off?
Well I would say, having met her, she is very much Ruth but during the race and calling strategy, she is very much Ruthless. ;)
Just curious here, wouldn’t Sauber need two points to oust Manor?