Brimming with confidence after his top 10 finish in Valencia, Force India driver Adrian Sutil expects the new updates to bridge the gap that separates his team from its maiden Formula One points in Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.
After the upgrades debuted in the European Grand Prix, both the VJM02 cars finished inside top 12 and Sutil revealed it has indeed made a difference.
“It was a very simple track, it just goes straight on, and so you don’t need a lot of downforce. But I think we gained about half a second, and it should be even more in Spa,” Sutil said.
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Describing Spa as one of his favourite tracks, the German said Force India might break its point duck there.
“Spa I think is our circuit,” he said.
“We were quite good there last year, and this year must be much, much better. I’ll be happy with a dry weekend. The circuit is amazing in the dry, and our car is now good in the dry. I want to see how our update works there,” Sutil said.
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Looking back, Sutil drew lot of confidence from his show in Valencia and said it was great to run wheel-to-wheel with some of the top teams.
“I think it was a strong race, and I’m really happy with it. I have done a few other races which were similar and maybe even had a better position in the end. But here almost nobody retired. And it was a dry race, and normally we’re strong in the wet races,” he explained.
“It’s important to have some good races in the dry, so I’m quite pleased with it. It was a good race and a good weekend. Finishing in the top 10 was a goal for us, and we achieved it, so I’m happy,” he said.
It was an impressive outing indeed in Valencia as just one car — Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull that retired and Sutil finished right behind German Grand Prix winner Mark Webber.