We can go more to the front - Sutil

He had a long wait to get back in an F1 car after his Friday outing at the Japanese GP, but Adrian Sutil is already excited about the new F8-VII. As Spyker elected not to test with an interim car in November and December, Adrian didn’t get back into the cockpit until he conducted the second shakedown day at Silverstone in February. He had another go at Barcelona last Monday, before handing the car to Christijan Albers for the remainder of the test, but is keen to rack up more mileage before his Grand Prix debut.

It’s not widely appreciated that prior to his two recent outings in the F8-VII he had only been an F1 car on six occasions – the three GP Fridays he did last season plus two days in Valencia a year ago and a very brief run at Silverstone in April. In fact, his cumulative career total of eight days and around 700km contrasts with the 86 days and 37,000km plus of fellow 2007 rookie Heikki Kovalainen!

"I learned a lot in Barcelona, I did 83 laps and it was a really good day, although I’m not at the 100% limit yet. But I feel really good in the car and I feel quick, and I’m doing consistent lap times. It was also my first time in Barcelona, but it was not that difficult to learn. For the first real test day for the car, it was not too bad."

"It’s early so it’s hard to say," continues Adrian Sutil. "But I really think there is some potential in the car. We have limited data for the tyres, so at the moment we are struggling to heat the tyres up. It’s hard for everybody, but especially us, because we had no testing with them until now. The others had all the winter to learn about the tyres, but we are starting with both a new car and new tyres. It’s difficult, but we have to do our best!

Of course there’s a lot of work to do on the car, and we’re trying a lot of things, with the engine, the systems, and so on. We have to run through everything. I think Valencia and then at the last test in Barcelona should show where we are. I think we can go more to the front. I’ll keep on working hard and pushing the guys."

The only downside for Adrian so far was the crash that curtailed his first day in the car at Silverstone, although the freezing conditions didn’t make his job any easier.

"The conditions were very difficult! In some places there was ice on the straight, and the kerbs were very, very slippery. At Copse corner it was quite easy to hit the kerb outside. I hit it a little bit, suddenly the car had some oversteer, and I lost it. It was quite fast, but the impact was not that much!"