Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson admitted that he needed few laps just to get back into the rhythm after his huge crash during Italian GP’s FP2.
The Swede’s Sauber flipped over multiple times in violent crash in Turn 1 at Monza at the start of FP2 on Friday as he lost the rear due to a DRS failure. He was taken to the medical center but was released soon after getting a green signal.
The team broke the curfew on Friday and worked overnight to fix the car to put a new chassis as Ericsson took the track on Saturday in FP3 and qualifying. However, it wasn’t a straight up quick times for the Swede.
He took his time to regain confidence with the car and also the DRS. The team found a design flaw which they were able to fix on both the cars after Charles Leclerc also confirmed of an issue in FP2 on Friday.
“It takes a few laps [to get back into groove],” said Ericsson. “FP3 was about building up the confidence again but then when you are into it, you start to feel good [quickly]. I had a hit in the neck from the impact.
“But it is surprisingly good with the incident like that to be able to walk away and drive the next day is [already] quite incredible – it also shows how good safety in F1 is these days. Our mechanics also worked all night and did a great job to repair the car in time.”
The team though did not have a good qualifying after both the cars were knocked out in Q1 with Leclerc in 17th and Ericsson 19th. The lack of performance mystified both the drivers who felt they did a good job on their respective laps.
Ericsson though has a 10-place penalty and will remain at the back of the grid but ahead of other penalty holders Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo and Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg with Leclerc already up to 15th.