Sauber apologise to Zhou for “not acceptable” qualifying blunder

Sauber apologised to Zhou Guanyu after sending him out at the end of qualifying too late to complete his final run.

Zhou repeatedly asked his team whether they had enough time left, and was told each time they did. But as he reached the timing line to begin his final run the lights had already turned red.

“To be honest, it was quite a disaster session because to be the only driver not doing the last lap, crossing the line with fully red [lights] was just not so acceptable,” he told the official F1 channel. “But that’s how it is at the moment.

“We completely messed up the timing for the final run. We’re sat in the garage too long and we go out last, couldn’t do the lap so, game over.”

While Valtteri Bottas reached SQ2 in the other Sauber, Zhou will start the sprint race from the back of the grid. “Right now we just need to understand because clearly what happened today is not what we should be doing and it basically ruined my qualifying,” he said.

Sauber team representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi accepted they had made a mistake. “We must apologise to Zhou, as we made the wrong call in SQ1, and he was unable to start his second attempt,” he said.

“A new lap would have given him the chance to improve his time with the track evolution—as we saw on Valtteri’s car with his improvement on the second push lap. Analysing what went wrong in the communication process is very important to avoid repeating such a mistake.”

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Zhou’s radio messages from SQ1

Zhou	Zhou joins the queue of cars in the pit lane Am I the last one in the queue, or…
Benisi	At the moment, yes. Just one car behind you.
Zhou	Are we okay with the timing?
Benisi	We are. Remember, work on brakes.
Benisi	Tyre temperatures at the moment are good.
Zhou	Between turns one and two in the pit exit Timing okay, yeah?
Benisi	Yes, we are.
Zhou	How long we have?
Benisi	One minute 50.
Benisi	Turn three in the pit lane exit You have time, don’t you worry. Just think about tyres. At the moment tyres are good, temperatures are good so nothing new to do.
Benisi	Tsunoda now opening into corner four.
Benisi	Approaching Subida do Lago Verstappen behind.
Zhou	Who else?
Benisi	No more traffic, just go.
Benisi	Approaching Ferradura Leclerc behind you pushing, two seconds behind you.
Benisi	Leclerc passes him at Ferradura Let him go, good.
Benisi	At Bico de Pato Alonso five behind you, pushing. Brake warming off.
Benisi	Approaching Mergulho 30 seconds, we’ve got margin. And Sainz is four behind Alonso.
Benisi	Alonso passes him into Juncao Now push. Push, push. Mode ‘push’ and go.
Zhou	Zhou crosses the timing line where red lights are illuminated My God, guys.
Zhou	I’ve taken the chequered flag, man! Fuck’s sake.
Benisi	Copy that.
Zhou	Yeah I thought… I mean… Guys, I had no margin.
Benisi	Mode ‘end’.
Zhou	Entering the pits We need to be better on timings. But we talk later.

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