The first day of practice at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal was not perfect for the Sauber F1 Team’s drivers, Esteban Gutiérrez and Adrian Sutil. Gutiérrez lost approximately half an hour due to a problem with a control unit, which needed to be changed. Both drivers believe the car has more potential which can be exploited.
Esteban Gutiérrez
“It’s been a tough day. We had some technical problems this morning, which is not ideal because we lost valuable track time. This afternoon we managed to solve the issues we had in the morning, but I’m still not completely happy with the car’s overall handling. But we have good information in order to put everything together for tomorrow, which is pretty important so that I can feel confident with the car and drive it to the limit. The whole driveability into the corners is quite tricky, and the car is snappy, which is obviously not ideal on a track that is quite slippery. In addition, it’s important to have a stable car when you want to drive on the kerbs.”
Adrian Sutil
“This morning was quite good. It’s really fun to drive on this track! Obviously the surface has very little grip. In addition there are numerous chicanes, but overall the car was quite good to drive. The main challenge in the morning was to get the tyres to work. In the afternoon this was a bit easier. We tried different downforce levels. We still have to sort out some issues with the aerodynamics. Apart from that, there were no big surprises. We are where we are, and we have to make the best of it. The car is still not exactly where we want it to be, which is where it works the best, so we have some work left left to do for tomorrow.“
Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering
“In the morning we did aerodynamic comparisons on both cars and the usual set-up work. We had to change a control unit on Esteban’s car, which cost him approximately half an hour. In the afternoon we concentrated mainly on the tyre comparisons. Apart from the problem with the control unit, it was a pretty normal Friday. We still have room for improvement. We need to analyse the data and draw the right conclusions.”