One improving F1 team avoid woeful fate at Qatar Grand Prix
Under-the-radar P8 in Qatar is a big deal for struggling squad
No F1 team will end the season point-less after the penultimate race of the year.
Sauber avoided the dreadful fate of ending the 2024 campaign with zero points at the F1 Qatar Grand Prix.
Guanyu Zhou finished eighth at the Lusail International Circuit, delivering his team their first points of the year.
Zhou and teammate Valtteri Bottas had previously toiled away all season without a single reward for their effort.
Bottas has one more opportunity, at next weekend’s F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, to score a point and avoid ending the year point-less.
Bottas and Logan Sargeant, who Williams got rid of, currently have zero points.
Sauber improve in Qatar
The signs of improvement for Sauber were there on Friday and Saturday in Qatar.
“We've been waiting for these improvements for a long, long time,” Bottas said.
“So it's kind of ironic…”
Both Zhou and Bottas will not be on the F1 grid next season.
Sauber have instead signed Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg and will give Formula 2 driver Gabriel Bortoleto his big break.
Bottas, the 10-time grand prix winner, could return to Mercedes as a reserve driver.
Zhou’s future is less clear but he has been linked with a reserve role for Ferrari.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
