Following Williams’ car reveal today, Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber just launched its car for the 2024 season named the C44. It’s a complete livery rethink for the Sauber team this year, as the previous title sponsor Alfa Romeo is officially out.
That means new colors are in order, and the team went with a bright green and black theme to match its sponsor Kick’s theme colors. (For those wondering, Kick is a live video streaming service, and Stake is online gambling.) The team’s new technical director, James Key, spoke optimistically about the new car and the changes made for 2024.
“The C44 is virtually a completely new car, with a few carry-over areas at the rear of the car,” Key says. “The team had to take an ambitious direction well before I joined: there are many mechanical changes, some of which you can’t see at all, but some are very visible.”
Last year wasn’t a very positive year for Alfa Romeo on the track, but the hope is all these changes amount to a car that’s much more competitive in 2024.
“The front suspension is completely new, a tough and ambitious project for a team of our size,” Key added. “There are many aerodynamic changes, too, as would be expected given that this remains the primary area of development – so, overall, the car will really look quite different to last year’s car. We took a lot of new, exciting directions, all of which appear to hold quite a bit of potential, so we’re looking forward to seeing them on track.”
The driver lineup is the same as last year with Valterri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu in the cars. Both of them speak of high expectations for this season, and Guanyu sounds especially excited about the new colors. “First, you know,” Guanyu starts, “you can’t miss the color! It’s a very exciting new approach, especially in Formula One. And then from my side, of course, we’re hoping to be a fast one.”
This new Sauber car will hit the track for the first time this Friday when it completes a shakedown run in Barcelona, and following that, we’ll hope to get an idea about how competitive it might be during pre-season testing later this month in Bahrain.
