Sauber draws hope from increased competitiveness
Esteban Gutiérrez finished the German Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring in 14th. Adrian Sutil retired in lap 48 after spinning out in the last corner. It was a race in which the team had the chance to score a point.
Esteban Gutiérrez, car #21, Sauber C33-Ferrari (Chassis 01/Ferrari): “The whole team did a good job over the weekend. From Friday on we developed the car as best we could. However, 14th position is not satisfying. I was fighting the entire race from the beginning to the end, trying to gain positions and keeping cars behind me. At the moment we are missing the pace to be able to fight with the others in front of us. There was not much that we could do. We need to keep working and focusing on our performance so we can be more competitive in the next races.”
Adrian Sutil, car #99, Sauber C33-Ferrari (Chassis 02/Ferrari): “It was an exciting race with good battles. I had a lot of fun and it was the first time I could keep up with some other drivers. It is positive as our car was more competitive this weekend. Suddenly, after my last pit stop, I lost power and when I entered the Motodrom I thought the engine would switch off. In the last corner I had a similar problem, then I spun and this time the engine did switch off. It is certainly frustrating, but at the moment we have to come to grips with it.”
Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: “The race showed that our competitiveness has slightly improved, although we know that our level is certainly not satisfying yet. We had the chance to gain one point and it is a pity that we could not take advantage of this due to two unfortunate incidents. At first we suffered from a wrong driver procedure, following that the driver spun in the final corner and we still have to investigate the reasons for that. However, there were positive aspects and we need to deploy the insights we have gained and take every opportunity that comes up.”
Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering: “Both our cars started on the supersoft tyres, which was meant to boost our chances on lap one, and worked well. When the Safety Car went in, Adrian was in P10 and Esteban in P13. Then we went to a split strategy with Adrian on soft and Esteban on supersoft tyres, which gave us a solid basis to make the right decisions for the second part of the race. This turned out to be the right decision. The drivers were racing close to each other and were able to keep up with our competition. Adrian’s race ended on lap 48 after the final pit stop due to a wrong driver procedure, following that the driver spun in the final corner and we still have to investigate the reasons for that. Esteban lost some positions on track, so in the end the result was not different from what we have had before, nevertheless there are some encouraging signs concerning our performance.“
