Sauber team boss Monisha Kaltenborn praised Pascal Wehrlein after the German scored his first points for the Swiss outfit at the Spanish Grand Prix.
The former Manor driver used an alternative one-stop strategy to move up 11 places from his starting position of 19th and, as a result, leave McLaren as the only team yet to finish in the points in 2017.
His best result in Formula 1 also comes after a difficult start to the season for the 22-year-old after missing the first three races recovering from a back injury sustained at the Race of Champions in January.
“Absolutely, he had to take so much criticism for what had happened, partly very unfair and then a lot of criticism coming out about his performance,” Kaltenborn told Sky Sports when asked if he had shown character. “We know a lot of it was on the car of course, but he just I think he showed everyone today what we are capable of.”
She also suggested that only by having a driver with the ability of Wehrlein, was Sauber able to optimise the path they took during the race.
“It was a risky strategy but our strategist did a very good job in spotting the things at the right time,” Monisha said. “You also need the drivers for that to implement that [the strategy] so a very, very good result for us.”
The former DTM champion was also delighted by the performance he put in, in Barcelona.
“I’m really happy about the race and how it went, we took a risky one-stop strategy but it worked out,” Wehrlein said.
“I think the first stint was quite tough with the softs driving so long with the soft, and in the end it was really important to keep Sainz behind, who was obviously a lot quicker,” he explained.
“But you know then to keep him behind and build a gap to the guys behind him, because I got the five-second penalty and I knew that I have to make a gap to the other guys behind him, otherwise we lose a very strong race.”