• European Grand Prix

Valencia will suit Force India - Sutil

Adrian Sutil is expecting another strong showing from Force India © Getty Images

Enlarge

Related Links

• Race:
• European Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Paul di Resta
• |
• Tonio Liuzzi
• |
• Adrian Sutil

• Teams:
• Racing Point

Adrian Sutil is confident Force India will again be quick at the upcoming European Grand Prix, after both cars qualified and finished in the top ten at the Canadian Grand Prix.

The Force Indias qualified fifth and ninth in Montreal and, after an incident-packed race, finished ninth and tenth. The team was left slightly disappointed that it did not record a better result, but Sutil believes the car was fundamentally quick and that it will also be suited to the Valencia street circuit holding this weekend's race.

"Valencia needs a medium to low downforce aero configuration and we've shown that we can perform well on this type of track," he said. "We were strong in Canada and I believe we can be quite good in Valencia as well. We've also got some new parts coming for this race that should further improve our performance, including a new front wing and some smaller bodywork changes, plus a few minor suspension component developments. I think it looks promising. We've not had the best luck in Valencia in the past but I hope that the good basic foundations of the car, plus the solid developments we've had over the past races and leading into this one will put us in good shape to get some more points on the board and close the gap to Renault."

After a couple of bad results in Spain and Turkey, Tonio Liuzzi reverted to the chassis he started the season with and was immediately quicker in Canada. Now that the team has identified his problem, he is confident he will be able to build on his current form in Valencia.

"I feel that Canada was another start for me and for sure I will be pushing like crazy to keep that level of performance going," he said. "I will stick with the chassis I used in Canada from now on because it is working well in the corners. I have always believed that we had the potential to finish in the points and I have always believed in myself and the team has really supported me so it's not like we've done anything new - we've just really focussed on getting the whole package together. Now it's all come together we're really seeing the results so we all need to concentrate hard and build on the strengths we've developed over the past two weeks. I've been back in the factory again and preparing in the simulator and I feel confident about this next race. Looking forward, Valencia is another track that could suit us quite well."

Paul di Resta will return to action as a Friday test driver for Force India, taking over Sutil's car during first practice. He was scheduled to be out on track in Turkey and Canada as well but the team gave extra cockpit time to its regular drivers to allow them to get used to the car's new F-duct.

"I'm really looking forward to getting back in the car again in Valencia, particularly as it's been a few months since I was last out in practice in Spain," said di Resta. "Valencia is quite a good circuit to get back on track as it's fast and smooth and looks pretty easy to learn as a layout. I'm preparing myself for it with the usual simulator work and then we'll walk the track on the Thursday to pick up the smaller details like the kerbing, bumps and any changes from last year that might affect the baseline set-up we run on Friday."

"Tonio and I will be in pretty similar positions in that we've never raced on the circuit before so we'll work together to get as much information as possible for the rest of the weekend. I've also had a weekend off since Canada - which is pretty unusual this year - so I feel rested and relaxed ahead of the event."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.