Mixed fortunes for Sauber on Friday practice for the Brazilian GP

There were mixed fortunes on day one of the Brazilian Grand Prix in Interlagos for the two Sauber F1 Team drivers. While Adrian Sutil had a trouble free day and was able to complete his programme, Esteban Gutiérrez suffered a number of technical issues and lost a lot of valuable track time, particularly in the morning when he was only able to complete six laps.

Esteban Gutiérrez (car number 21):
Sauber C33-Ferrari (Chassis 01/Ferrari)
1^st practice: 18^th / No timed lap (6 laps) / 2^nd practice: 14^th / 1:13.902 min (25 laps)
“For me it was an unfortunate day, because we were having trouble the whole day. On the other hand, I was able to run for at least a few laps to get a feeling for the track and the new surface. It was also important to see how the tyres behaved and to see how the car’s balance was. We did not have a lot of time to find the best set-up today. We will try our best to catch up tomorrow.”

Adrian Sutil (car number 99):
Sauber C33-Ferrari (Chassis 02/Ferrari)
1^st practice: 11^th / 1:14.434 min (31 laps) / 2^nd practice: 15^th / 1:14.204 min (36 laps)
“It was a good day. We chose a different set-up to Esteban in order to make a comparison. In the morning everything went well due to the lower temperatures, whereas the weather conditions changed completely during the afternoon session. The asphalt temperatures were quite high, so the grip got less and, therefore, the lap times were in general slower. We had to choose another set-up for the car, which was not easy. Tomorrow it will depend on the weather. We will probably have cooler conditions, which means we need to find a different set-up. It will not be an easy weekend.”

Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering:
“For Adrian it was a good day. He was quite happy with the car in the morning. However, in the afternoon things were significantly more difficult with higher temperatures. Nevertheless we believe it should be easier tomorrow, because the forecast predicts colder condtions. But today was definitely challenging, especially with the softer compound. Otherwise no problems for Adrian, and he was able to complete his planned programme.

Esteban on his side had a very difficult day. He lost most of the morning session due to what we initially thought was an MGUK issue, and which we were not able to fix. In the afternoon we at least managed to drive by using some extra procedures, but then towards the end of the session Esteban had to stop out on track due to what we think was an electrical problem. However, we need to investigate this issue further.”

Sauber F1 Team