Do you know how underperforming Zhou Guanyu’s Sauber C44 really was? When Sauber unveiled this fluorescent green C44 at the beginning of 2024, the shocking livery instantly stunned fans worldwide. But soon, it earned the nickname “Green Tractor” — simply because its performance was embarrassingly poor, consistently about one second slower per lap than the competition.
The situation was made worse by its abnormally high failure rate. To avoid technical breakdowns, the team would sometimes instruct drivers to lift and coast after just a few laps. Even worse, the engine occasionally made strange “tick-tick-tick” noises that shook fan confidence.
If poor performance was a matter of flawed car design, Sauber’s operational blunders were an even bigger disaster. While other teams pushed pit stops into the elite two-second range, Sauber’s mechanics looked like they were reenacting mankind’s first attempts at taming wheels. In Bahrain, Zhou Guanyu was just 0.3 seconds away from a points finish — only to lose out due to a pit stop that cost 1.2 extra seconds. Zhou fell silent on team radio for three whole minutes, holding back the frustration in his native Shanghai dialect.
Even more ridiculous, Valtteri Bottas suffered from a historic 52.4-second pit stop at the same race, instantly turning the event into a viral embarrassment. Fans couldn’t believe what they were watching. Ultimately, the C44 wasn’t just slow — the chaos within Sauber’s team operations was the real reason it earned the mocking title of “Green Tractor.”
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