Sauber Happy with New Car's Performance

Team boss Peter Sauber has said he is happy with the reliability of the Swiss team's new C22 car ahead of the official launch of the machine on Sunday.

Sauber insisted the reliability of the new car has taken him by surprise and warned that tweaks to the set-up will give extra speed as the Hinwil-based team look to better their fifth place finish.

"We saw in the first two tests in Barcelona and Valencia that the reliability of the car is unusually high," Sauber told TagBlatt newspaper. "For the moment we are attempting to put discrepancies in the aerodynamics right in the wind tunnel.

"The times in the third test in Valencia, when we optimised the mechanical set-up for the first time, were a lot better. The car responds very well to changes."

But despite being upbeat about the performance of the new machine, Sauber believes that his drivers Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Nick Heidfeld face a tough task this year. Sauber predicted that his team face a six-way fight for fourth spot in the manufacturers' championship behind Ferrari, Williams and McLaren, but is hopeful of success in 2003.

"BAR, Renault, Jordan, Toyota and probably Jaguar, who have not made too much impression (in testing)," Sauber said when asked of who will rival Sauber for fourth position this year.

"BAR have been very fast at the first attempt and Toyota have made an enormous step forward, with Olivier Panis contributing a large part. Jordan is difficult to estimate because they have not driven much yet. Renault is also a mystery to me, because so far the car is not very fast."