Sauber set to run full power for first time in 2017 F1 season

The successful debut of a cooling update in Friday practice at the Hungaroring will give Sauber the possibility to 'turn up' its engine mode.

It has struggled with cooling problems all season, forcing it to run the engine at lower performance levels to prevent overheating.

Ericsson said the Friday data proved the upgrade had solved the problem.

"The big thing is the cooling system," Ericsson told Autosport.

"You don't feel [the difference] but the engine guys could see the engine was running in much healthier temperatures.

"In qualifying and the race, we can turn up the engine a lot more.

"Hopefully we can extract more performance from that, which is something which has been hurting us quite a lot this season.

"The engine has been running quite high and we have to go down on engine settings.

"We already have the old power unit so you don't want to turn the unit down.

"The way I understand, we can turn it up maximum for qualifying - something which we haven't been able to do this year."

Ericsson was pleased with the update package as a whole, but accepted getting out of Q1 will likely still be a challenge.

"It was a good step in the right direction, maybe not as much as we want but it's always like that - you always want more," he said.

"I definitely felt the car, straight away in FP1, was a step forward.

"There was a bit more grip in general, compared to what I'm used to. The update was working.

"If we can tune the car better to get the tyres better over a whole lap, we should be able to mix it up with guys ahead of us.

"Will it be enough for Q2? I don't know. It might not be possible.

"I was feeling quite confident in the car [on Friday] so we could maybe do it."

Sauber announced on Friday that it would continue with Ferrari engines next season but would get latest-specification units.

The new deal followed its decision not to proceed with its previously-announced switch to Honda.