Really happy to make my debut - Sutil
On the day of the carlaunch at Silverstone Adrian Sutil, who will make his debut as race driver this season, talks about how he prepared for the upcoming season and about his team mate Christijan Albers.
"I’m really happy to be making my debut so I’m not nervous at all. Physically, I have been training very hard, helped a lot by my trainer Alex. I have been out running and cycling every day and in late January I also went for four days warm weather training in Majorca – it was tough with five to six hours or exercise a day, but you have to be fit to do F1 so I don’t mind, especially if it makes me more prepared for the first race."
Have you been spending much time at the Spyker base in Silverstone getting to know your team and your engineer?"I already knew the team a little last year, it’s all quite cool and Brad Joyce, my engineer, is a good guy. I think we’ll work well together. I’ve come to the factory quite a lot as there is so much to learn there. There is so much to see and pick up and at the factory you can see how everything works and fits together in the team. It’s very important for me to learn about the technical aspects of the car as it makes you a stronger driver."
You’re part of a new wave of young drivers on the grid this year. Some you’ve raced against before - how well do you know them?"Young drivers are obviously the future of the sport and it’s exciting to be part of that new group of drivers coming in now. I knew some drivers, like Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen, quite well as I’ve raced against them before. It’s difficult to say how well we will all do now we’re in F1 together as so much depends on the car. If you look at the stats over a race year, you tend to see that drivers hold their grid positions in the race, so if your car is slower you will stay at the back. Of course we’ve never all raced together in F1 so I can’t say how it will turn out, but I do know what I can do. We’ll just have to wait and see in future to see which teams improve."
You have moved straight from F3 to F1. How big a jump will that be?"It will be difficult for sure as the difference is quite big, but I’m not completely new as I did three Friday sessions last year and some testing too. Once you’ve got the feeling and you know how to drive the car, it’s a case of looking to build up the miles as a driver. It helps now that I am completely focussed on F1 and am not doing any other championships like last year so I hope to be well-prepared - from the middle of the season you should be able to see what I can do."
Your team-mate Christijan Albers is a quick, experienced driver, do you think your respective talents will benefit each other?"Christijan is a very good driver and we get on well together, so I think the partnership will be beneficial to both of us. He’s quick so I will have to work hard, but I hope I can push him too."
Which circuits are you looking forward to this year? How much experience do you have on some of them?"I know some of the circuits, particularly Fuji as I raced there several times already and I like it very much. I also know Spa and the Nurburgring and I’m particularly looking forward to Monte Carlo too as I hold the lap record there in F3. It’s always a special track for drivers, but this one is very special for me."
Source Spykerf1
