Sauber says it is 'paying for mistakes' as Force India pulls away in standings

With five races to go, Sauber is seventh in the standings, 12 points adrift of nearest rival Force India, which is having a strong second half of 2011 and got both cars in the points at the most recent event in Signapore.

Team boss Peter Sauber said this has left him ruing the exclusion of both cars from the Australian Grand Prix, where rear wing infringements cost Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi the seventh and eighth places they had scored on the road, and the double gearbox failure at Monza, where the team was very competitive in race trim.

"It was Australia and now the gearbox problems, otherwise we would be in front of Force India," said Sauber.

The team's managing director Monisha Kaltenborn added: "We're actually paying now for the mistakes we've made."

Kaltenborn also pointed out that Sauber had changed its development plans when it was decided that the blown-exhaust rules would be changed from Silverstone onwards, and could not recover when the regulations ultimately stayed the same.

"To be fair, we're convinced that the car is relatively good and the steps we've made are also good," said Kaltenborn.

"Our problem is that the exhaust doesn't work the way we want it to. And the FIA indicated that they would stop first the engine mapping, and then from Silverstone on, the entire system, we stopped the development. That's hitting us now."