Helmut Marko claims Sauber's C31 F1 car is the best

Sauber's 80 points so far in 2012 belies the true strength of the Swiss-made C31.

In fact, Red Bull manager Dr Helmut Marko claims the single seater steered by Sergio Pérez and Kamui Kobayashi this year is "perhaps the best car in the field".

However, the Ferrari-powered car has been on the podium just twice in 2012 so far, which has attracted criticism of the young driver duo.

McLaren's Jenson Button said: "It's not Perez who is the 'tyre whisperer', it's the car.

"If I was to drive my car as he drives his, then our tyres would wear out very quickly."

Peter Sauber recently described Sauber's 2012 season so far as a "roller coaster ride", although he did not specifically criticise Perez or Kobayashi.

He told Blick: "We have a very fast car that works very well on almost every circuit. We have the speed to win.

"We could have scored a lot more points."

With nine races to go, Hinwil based Sauber is ranked sixth of the 12 teams in the constructors' championship.

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