Sauber boss Monisha Kaltenborn says Pascal Wehrlein's superb drive to eighth at the Spanish Grand Prix was a perfect response to those who criticised his decision to miss the opening races of 2017.
A one-stop strategy helped Wehrlein climb into the top ten in Barcelona and, despite a year-old power unit deficit, he was able to fight with Toro Rosso and Haas throughout. It gave the German-Mauritian driver his first points for the team in just his third race, having opted to miss the opening two races due to a lack of fitness after an injury suffered in a Race of Champions crash.
Some criticised that decision at the time, even though the injury -- three fractured vetebrae -- had prevented Wehrlein from training at a crucial point in his preparation for 2017's bigger, more demanding cars.
When asked by Sky Sports F1 if the result showed Wehrlein's character, Kaltenborn replied: "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, we know a lot of it was on the car of course, but he just I think he showed everyone today what we is capable of.
"It was a risky strategy but our strategist did a very good job in spotting the things at the right time. You need the drivers for that to, to implement that [the strategy] so a very, very good result for us."
Sauber's strategy was helped by the Virtual Safety Car, deployed due to Stoffel Vandoorne's stricken McLaren in the first sector of the lap. Wehrlein, along with the majority of his midfield rivals, made the most of the VSC to pit for fresh tyres without losing as much time as they would have as pitting under normal circumstances.
Despite a penalty for missing the bollard on entry to the pits for his one and only stop, Wehrlein was classified eighth and scored the team's first points since last season's Brazilian Grand Prix. He believes the result was only possible because of Sauber's strategy.
"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, which was obviously a lot quicker 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."
The result means Sauber have swapped places with McLaren, who now sit rooted to the bottom of the constructors' championship.