The team formerly known as Alfa Romeo and Sauber have shown the world their new car for 2024 under Stake branding.
The car displayed a bold green and black colour scheme, moving away from the red that had featured on the cars under the Alfa Romeo name. The team claimed to be unveiling a new identity that is “fierce, passionate and full of sizzle.”
The car features a new pull-rod front suspension design, joining the likes of Red Bull and McLaren in that design choice, as well as having what the team describes as being an “aggressively redesigned aero package”, alongside having a completely new floor and redesigned internals.
The team from Hinwil had a disappointing 2023, having fallen to 9th after finishing in 6th in 2022. They will hope to bounce back with the C44, which Technical Director James Key describes as being “virtually a completely new car.”
“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.
“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.”
Valtteri Bottas said of the new car “the C44 definitely feels different, both in terms of looks and of what we can expect from the car. We need to perform as a team and extract the most out of this package, which has some impressive potential.
“The objectives need to be lofty. My own expectations are high, we definitely need to make a good step and see good progress from last year.”
His teammate Zhou Guanyu added: We’ve put a lot of effort since the last season, especially in the second half of the year, after the summer break, just to make sure we’re understanding exactly where we had to improve as a team and what the plan for the guys back in the factory would be for the winter: now its time to put everything together and get the car on track.”
