- Second Bahrain Test - Day One
Sutil: So much more to come
Adrian Sutil believes most teams are still in the dark about a lot of areas of the new 2014 cars, but that big improvements can be expected over the opening races of the season.
Sutil managed to put in a race simulation in the Sauber on what was a productive opening day to the final Bahrain test, as well as some qualifying practice on both the soft and supersoft compounds. But he insists there is still a lot of work for everyone to do to understand the new engines and fuel consumption under the new regulations, and that it will not become clearer until the season is underway.
"Every day I feel more comfortable and we are certainly making progress," said Sutil. "We are making great progress, especially our engineers. Every day I get back in the car it feels better to drive. It's like a big puzzle where they are still looking for the parts and putting it together but we're making steps forward. You don't just finish this in a week, we will develop this car massively from now onwards. We just need time.
"There are so many parameters which are still unknown. The driveframe and the complete power unit too, to use everything is a very complex thing for the engineers so the first race will be a bit of a guess as to how far we can go. To be on the optimum side you just need to practice, from race to race we will get so much better. We won't be on the optimum side of using fuel straight away in the race. Maybe we won't last or we will have a bit too much left in the tank, this is the thing we don't know."
Sutil was happy with his opening day and hopes Sauber can replicate it for the rest of the week so they can be in a good position for the opener in Australia.
"89 laps, you should say that is proper testing otherwise you are doing something wrong. 89 laps was a good achievement today. It's the first time I did a race simulation, it worked quite well. There were quite a few laps without issues so I'm comfortable but it's still a bit early to go racing. I think it's the same for everyone and makes it exciting and I think Melbourne will be exciting and unpredictable for the spectators and the drivers. The target is probably to finish the race, because if you do you'll get some decent points."
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