Stake F1 has unveiled their first contender since joining the sport alongside Sauber featuring a bold black and green colour design for their 2024 F1 livery.
Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber officially confirmed their new team colours for 2024 F1 at a sumptuous launch event in London on Monday night as the squad is set to run for the next two seasons before becoming the Audi factory team.
Officially rebranding as Stake F1 Team for the 2024 season, the team that ran as Alfa Romeo the previous year entered its car under the name Kick Sauber. The team will also stick to the naming scheme Sauber used when it made its debut to Formula 1 in 1993 with the C12.
After Alfa Romeo relinquished the naming rights to Sauber, the team hired music icon Drake to tease their new name over the winter, creating much curiosity over the appearance of their new 2024 F1 contender.
The officially launched Stake F1 Team C44 will make its track debut at a shakedown in Barcelona on Friday featuring a striking new colour scheme consisting of fluro-green and black. However, the team still hasn’t unveiled their newest chassis and only unveiled its new colour scheme today.
The Stake F1 team still have work on their hands to get back on track after scoring just 16 points the previous season and falling to ninth in the Constructors’ Championship.
Sauber technical director James Key describes the C44 as “basically an entirely new car besides its new livery with only a few minor exterior differences from its predecessor, the C43.
Key, a former member of McLaren, acknowledges that the team needed to commit to an ambitious path well in advance of his arrival.
“The C44 is virtually a completely new car, with a few carry-over areas at the rear of the car,” Key said. “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.
“The front suspension is completely new, a tough and ambitious project for a team of our size, 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.”
Stake F1 team has moved to a pullrod setup in the front while maintaining the pushrod setup it debuted in 2022 in the rear after being one of only two teams to use pushrod suspension geometry in both the front and rear.
Only Red Bull and McLaren used the same pullrod-pushrod combination in their models last year. There are also noticeable adjustments to the bodywork; Key describes the aerodynamic direction as “much more extreme than last year,” following Red Bull’s lead.
Similar to Red Bull, the lower edge of the sidepod intake has been pushed forward, and the sidepod’s undercut has changed in form and design from the previous year.
Meanwhile, Stake F1 team drivers Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu will be striving for a significant improvement in order to make their way up the rankings as they enter their third season together.
“The new C44 definitely feels different,” said Valtteri Bottas, “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 – nothing else matters. Personally speaking, going into the third season together with a team, 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, a season in which, in all honesty, we didn’t meet the targets that we set for ourselves.
“We need to fix that now, we need to step up our game and do better, but I have seen some real enthusiasm back in Hinwil and I am confident we can do it.”
So far, four 2024 F1 liveries are currently on display for everyone to see, after Williams’ own launch earlier on Monday.
