Adrian Sutil
After two frustrating outings in Bahrain and Australia had failed to reward his top 10 grid positions Adrian Sutil scored a brilliant fifth place for Force India in Malaysia, holding off Lewis Hamilton in the latter stages. We asked Adrian for his thoughts on Sepang and the next race in China.
How do you feel about the Malaysian result?
I think the team did a fantastic job the whole weekend. We had a great qualifying, getting position four on the grid, and in the race I was fighting against the big cars, against McLaren in the end, and secured fifth place. It was a great achievement for all the team, and I’m very glad to achieve my first points for this year as well.
How tough was it to keep Lewis behind you?
Of course it wasn’t easy, as he has one of the best cars in the field, especially during the Malaysian weekend, McLaren was really, really strong. But I knew also my race performance is pretty good. Still, I had to push on in the last 20 laps, because he’d got the advantage of the soft tyres until five laps to go, when his tyres were going off a little bit. But there was no problem really to keep my position. Of course he put a little bit of pressure, but I had a good car in a straight line, and I knew without any mistakes there was no chance for Lewis to pass me. It just sweetens up out fifth position, because we had to really fight for it!
How good has the start of the season been for the team?
Very good, because in every race we scored points – in the first two Tonio, and this one I was the one. It just shows we did a very good job over the winter. We improved our car, and we are now a consistent top 10 runner. It depends on the conditions, but I think we can go even more forward in the grid. We showed really well in Malaysia and what our potential is, and of course we want to continue like that and score a few more points this year in a lot more races.
What does the team still need to work on?
It’s mainly aerodynamically where we are concentrating right now. It’s just the downforce, in F1 you’re always looking to improve the downforce. That’s what Red Bull has at the moment, they have so much grip in the corners, and that’s why they are so fast. Our car is very easy and nice to drive, it has a good balance, we just need to improve the downforce a little bit, but that’s what we’re doing. But we are very close to the top teams and we’re getting a new upgrade for the European races; hopefully it will get us a few tenths on the car and a few positions.
