Scoring points should be just a matter of time: Sutil

Published>Fri, Apr 02 10 10:25 AM

Adrian Sutil's reaction ranges from an indulgent smile to a mild laughter as he walks into the Force India cafeteria at the paddock, where the team mechanics, working overtime to assemble the car, have gathered to catch a breath and some juice.

Sutil has posted two failures in two races so far, after qualifying 10th in both. He collided with Robert Kubica in Bahrain to finish outside the points, while a mechanical problem did him in at the Australian GP.

But if he is disappointed, it doesn't show. Luck has seldom favored him on the tracks, and he has learnt the hard way to leave nothing to chance. No wonder then that instead of fretting over the 'DNF' against his name at Albert Park in Melbourne on Sunday, he wasted no time and caught the first available flight to Malaysia for the next Grand Prix.

"I came to Malaysia on the very day the race ended. Two races in eight days is tough but it's tough on all of us," says Sutil, speaking to The Indian Express. "I did some kayaking and sailing. It's a good work-out and it also refreshes you mentally. I also trained hard in the heat - Sepang is a taxing circuit because of the heat and humidity, drivers can lose a lot of weight during the race. So I tried to get acclimatised."

First up on his agenda for the weekend is Q3. Since the second half of the 2009 season, Sutil has been consistent on Saturdays, making qualifying a norm. The expectations, therefore, are more in 2010 and the German knows that - he, in fact, is relishing it.

"What happened to me in the previous two races can happen to anybody. Sometimes it happens in practice or qualifying and you just shake off the dust and carry on. Sometimes these things happen during the race and you can't do anything about it. Anyway, I don't think about luck or hard luck. I just want to go there and give my best shot. With this kind of performance, I think, scoring points should be a matter of time.

"I know all of us are expecting a lot more from the team than we did previously, but that pressure is a good thing. In fact there is more pressure when you stay at the back of the grid. Because if you stay there for too long, your career is over."

Checkered record

One piece of statistic that might bother Sutil right now is his record in Sepang - two retirements and one 15th-place finish when torrential rain ended the affair abruptly after 33 laps (unlucky again as he moved up from 18th exploiting the wet conditions). But those were the days of old engine. The new VJM03 is a vastly improved car and the team don't have to pray for the skies to open up to be competitive.

"With this car we don't need to hope every time that it rains. We can achieve good results in dry weather as well. Sepang is the kind of circuit which is expected to have less amount of action than the Albert Park - that doesn't mean it will be like Bahrain, you won't have too many overtakes, but you'll have some. It again means that Q3 will be all the more important," he says.

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