Ericsson admits that qualifying form must improve

Marcus Ericsson has admitted that his qualifying performances in 2018 have been lacking. The Sauber driver has been comfortably shaded by his more inexperienced but highly rated teammate in Charles Leclerc since the early stages of the season.

Leclerc has out-qualified the Swede 9-2 this season and scored the majority of Sauber's points in the constructor standings. Ericsson admits that it is a trend that will need to change in the second half of the season

“I think my race performances this year have been very strong,” he told formula1.com.

“On Sundays, it’s been really good. Of course there’s been some mistakes, like Silverstone, but in general on Sundays I’ve been pretty good. But, as I’ve said before, on Saturdays I have some room for improvement.

“Yeah, I think it’s about confidence with the car and how you feel the car is. For some reason, on one lap I’m struggling with that feeling on the car. I’m super confident with the car on high fuel, in race runs and preserving the tyres - and all these things.

“I’m really, really confident there, and feel that’s one of my strengths. But for some reason on one lap I’m just struggling to find the sweet spot with the car we have at the moment.

“It’s a bit strange because the last few years I’ve felt like I’ve improved that quite a bit, and compared to Pascal (Wehrlein) and Felipe (Nasr) I was as good or even better in qualifying to those two, who are two very good drivers, so I don’t really know why I’ve been struggling so much this year.”

Ericsson is currently without a drive for 2019 and so will be hoping his form picks up in the second half of the season, with several drivers circling that could end up at Sauber.