Monitoring the progress of Sauber is better achieved through comparisons to the top teams, team boss Fred Vasseur has claimed.
The Swiss outfit enjoyed a number of stand-out results in 2018, as a new Alfa Romeo partnership, latest spec Ferrari engines and Charles Leclerc helped them to their best season since 2015 with 48 points.
Certainly, it was a far cry from 2016 when Sauber came close to financial collapse and the former Renault boss explained the challenges of making it happen.
“We were more or less nowhere, so we had to improve in every single department and see,” Vasseur told Autosport.
“The reason for how we were getting on on-track was also due to the others – Williams struggling more than expected, McLaren.”
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Sauber’s progress was such that it caught the attention of Kimi Raikkonen, who is returning for 2019 alongside Antonio Giovinazzi, and now their rivals are identifying them as significant threats in the midfield this year.
Vasseur, however, is only focused on the pace difference to the pacesetters at Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.
“My trigger is more the gaps between the top teams, the percentage,” he stated. “[It is] the best way for me to monitor what we’re doing because they have big resources and if we are able to keep the same gap it means we’re improving.
“But we are closing the gap hugely compared to [2017]. Hugely.”