Sauber’s Felipe Nasr is certain his luck will change having failed to score since the Monaco Grand Prix.
Nasr has been hit with a number of reliability issues in recent races, while he was also involved in first lap contact at the Italian Grand Prix. His run of misfortune has come at a bad time, with Sauber receiving the upgraded Ferrari power unit and team-mate Marcus Ericsson currently boasting three consecutive points finishes. However, Nasr says he knows every driver goes through a tough spell which he is determined not to let affect his confidence.
“I’ve been facing some issues, some mechanical issue as well,” Nasr said. “In Spa I had the problem with the brakes in the race which occurred from lap three onwards, and in Monza I did a fantastic start, was able to be P7 at Turn 1 and then got a puncture because [Pastor] Maldonado hit me from the rear. What can I do?
“For my part I’m doing what I can control. Hopefully we will move out of this soon but it’s just a number of factors that have happened together in the last few events. If you take Silverstone I didn’t start because of a gearbox failure, Spa as I said I had a problem on the brakes which was solved in Monza and then we had a puncture in the race.
“The races we had the opportunity to score we have missed out on, but these things can happen to anyone and I’m the one facing it now. It’s part of the game, it’s part of racing.”
And Nasr says he prefers to be able to learn from such problems at this early stage of his career rather than in a few years.
“For sure I will come out stronger from these things. I am learning from these things and these failures, this will for sure put me back in a stronger position. It’s better to have it now than to have it in five years’ time, these kind of issues. As a first year, if you look the first part of the season was pretty good, I didn’t face any of these issues like this that stopped me getting strong results.
“Now I’m facing those but at some point they will end, for sure. As long as we understand everything I will come back stronger, the team will come back stronger because it is something we are facing together.”
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