Sauber hurt by set-up issues in the Korean Grand Prix

The Hinwil-based outfit had a troubled time at the Yeongam circuit, with Kamui Kobayashi finishing 15th and Sergio Perez one place behind after failing to extract any speed from their cars.

A post-race investigation into what went wrong has pinpointed that the team's woes were related to its use of the front tyres.

Technical director James Key said: "After our performance in Korea was clearly below our own expectations, we analysed all the data carefully and came to the conclusion that we underestimated the limitation on the front axle and front tyres. As a result we suffered from too much understeer, which resulted in over loading the front tyres."

Key is hopeful that the lessons learned will put it in better stead for next week's race in India, where track temperature will likely have a bit influence on performance.

"The downforce level is most likely similar to recent events," he explained. "We will have the soft and the hard tyre compound there. It's quite some time since we ran the hard compound, so we'll have to see how that goes.

"A lot depends on track temperatures, but given the nature of the track with several highly loaded corners, it could be that the hard tyre will warm up okay and last. Maybe the soft will struggle, but you never really know until you're there. On the car we will have some small modifications to the rear wings and some small updates on the front wing."