Force India – Adrian Sutil: ‘It was another one to learn from’

After challenging for points and podiums in recent races the season finale in Abu Dhabi proved to be frustrating for Adrian Sutil and the Force India team, as the slow, tight corners of the track didn’t play to the strengths of the VJM02.

Life on race day was made harder by a disappointing qualifying session. Like other drivers Adrian found that the softer option tyres were not the ideal choice for Q1, and that compromised his pace and left him stranded down in 18th place.

‘I was a little bit disappointed,’ says Adrian. ‘The car was much better than we actually did, but we lost it all in the qualifying. We struggled with the tyres, and we made the wrong decision. Even in the race here I saw how much we had lost because on the medium tyre I improved my time by one second to the qualifying time, which is absolutely not usual!’

Adrian gained a grid slot when Heikki Kovalainen was penalised, but he didn’t have the ideal first lap, and dropped to the back. ‘I had a really bad start, and I was nearly last at the first corner. I struggled with my tyres a lot in the first stint, and I just couldn’t hold it on the circuit. I was actually getting graining on the medium tyre after only five laps, which is also really unusual, but it’s the way the tyres are this year. Sometimes we don’t fully understand them, but every single detail makes a difference.’

In fact the team tried to improve the situation by switching to a two-stop strategy, so that he ran prime-prime-option tyres over the three stints. ‘We converted to a two-stop strategy to give me a decent race pace. We didn’t lose too much because my pace was so slow at the beginning, and I improved my times by two seconds in the second stint. In fact the second stint I did a 40.9s, and I did 41.8s in qualifying. It gave me a good race pace, and a good feeling for the end of the race.’

At one stage Adrian came up behind team mate Tonio Liuzzi, and since they were on different strategies, he didn’t lose any time before he got past. He eventually finished where he started, in 17th. ‘Tonio was on the softs and a little bit heavier at this time, so it was easier for me to pass. Overall it was a shame for both of us, because I think we could have had a much better weekend. But it was another one to learn from. In the end I was happy to go through the race and get some useful information.’