The third Russian Grand Prix will take place earlier in the 2016 race calendar compared to the last two years, when the Grand Prix weekend was in October. The Olympic city of Sochi will again host the FIA Formula One World Championship and this time it will be round four. The Sauber F1 Team headed to the Sochi Autodrom on the Black Sea coast with good memories from last season.

The Autodrom runs through the 2014 Winter Olympics Park. It is to a large extent surrounded by walls, therefore, the circuit can be considered a mix between a permanent and a street track. Straight-line performance, traction and braking dominates the first and the last sectors, whereas the middle one is more technical and requires the drivers to find their rhythm through the flow of the corners.

Marcus Ericsson: "Last year's Russian Grand Prix ended in a great team result with Felipe finishing in P6. I was rather unlucky that weekend as I wasn't able to finish the race. Immediately after the race started I ran into Nico (Hulkenberg) after he spun in turn two, so my race was over. However, we were quite competitive that weekend, so I am looking forward to racing on this track again."

Felipe Nasr: "Looking back to last season, I had a great race weekend in Sochi. We took every opportunity we could and maximised what we had. In the end I was classified in P6, which was my second best result in Formula 1. For this year, I still hope we can sort out the issues I had during the last race weekends. I am confident that the team is doing its best and everyone is working hard."