In 2016, Sauber missed pre-season testing due to financial concerns hurting their car development for 2016. Ericsson was running in 15th before a power issue in Australia and he drove a good race to take twelfth in Bahrain in the next round. He ran just outside the points in China but steadily dropped to sixteenth, still four places ahead of Nasr. In Russia he recovered from first lap contact to beat Nasr once again and take fourteenth. In Spain he was fantastic again as he was twelfth, but in Monaco he crashed into his teammate clumsily which ruined his next race in Canada as he started at the back due to a grid penalty. He went on a slump in the following races, with 17th in Baku and 15th in Austria, with qualifying crashes in Silverstone and Hungary forcing him to start from the pit lane. Another bad couple of races followed in Hockenheim and Spa, but after that he got back on track. In Monza, he maximised the car finishing sixteenth whilst in Singapore he made Q2 and was close to scoring his first point until a strategic blunder from the team. He ran close to points in Malaysia and Suzuka, thrashing his teammate in qualifying and the race. In Austin, he ran eleventh for part of the race but ended up fourteenth and in Mexico he put in one of the drives of the season as he recovered from a first lap crash to eleventh, just outside the points. He crashed out of the race in Brazil but finished fifteenth in Abu Dhabi.