Sutil – Sauber: “We didn’t learn much”

While the teams powered by Mercedes and Ferrari have been racking up laps since the first official outings in Jerez and Bahrain, the Sauber team, also propelled by the Italian engine, experienced a difficult day last Saturday during which Adrian Sutil was only able to complete seven laps without setting a time on the boards. Yet, he had surpassed 80 laps on the first day.

For the German driver, this frustrating day did not allow for the gathering of much information and puts the team against the wall, obligated to give it their all before the last test days scheduled for the end of the week: We didn’t learn much. It was a disappointing day. We had issues with the chassis and had to change it, which is a huge task. The team did a great job to get me back on the track before the end. But only seven in-and-out laps mean that we have to hope to do better during the next test days.

Despite everything, the former Force India driver felt that Sauber had made quite a bit of progress since their first outing in Jerez. But there is no time to waste with three weeks to go before the first Grand Prix in Australia (from March 14 to 16): « Things have improved quite a bit and we have a good package. The car was ready to run here and the aerodynamic package was more refined, which means the car was easier to drive. The conditions were better and we were able to make progress. But there is no time to waste. We have four days of testing left before Melbourne, and we need to cover the distance of a race. We need to do long runs and then we’ll see where we stand. »

On his side, his teammate Esteban Gutierrez completed his two-day program with 151 laps, covering 817.2 km. Meanwhile, Adrian Sutil completed 89 laps of the Sakhir circuit, covering 481.7 km. You can find our complete summary of the Bahrain tests.

The final testing days before the start of the season will take place in Bahrain from February 27 to March 2 and can be followed live on Fan F1.