Interview with Adrian Sutil : ‘It’s a good thing that we have a summer break’

After his great drive in Germany Adrian Sutil had a frustrating weekend in Hungary that ended with an early retirement. However he now has a long wait to make amends, because there is a three-week break until Valencia, which gives everyone a chance to recharge their batteries. We asked Adrian for his thoughts on Hungary, the summer break, and the upcoming European GP.

Q: You had a very short race in Hungary. What happened?

The first problem was my crash on Saturday morning. The guys needed some time to repair the car, which affected my qualifying in the end. They did a fantastic job to get it out again, but as I could only do two flying laps we were always going to be on the back foot. Then something went wrong straight away in the race. We had no issue in qualifying with temperatures at all, and then suddenly when I was exiting the pitlane to go the grid we had a massive problem. It seems there was something with the cooling system, and the water temperature was sky-high. It was really unlucky that something went wrong just before the race and we didn’t have a chance to fix it.

Q: How disappointing was that?

It was really frustrating, because you always have hopes, particularly for this race as we had had such a good one in Germany, and you go through the weekend thinking this is going to be it. When you’re on the grid and your engineer is telling you ‘sorry but I think you we have a problem’ it is like expecting presents for Christmas, and when you look under the tree, there is nothing!

Q: How do you feel about having a long break in the middle of the summer?

It’s a long season and it’s very hard, and by the last few races everybody’s tired because there is so much travelling. So I think it’s a good thing that we have a summer break in F1, as nearly everyone else does. I think it’s important to refresh your mind and be fresh for the last few races.

Q: What are your plans for the next three weeks?

The first week I’m a home in Switzerland, and then I go to Bali with my family. I’m looking forward to that, because it’s one of my favourite destinations for a holiday, I’ve been there so many times and I know the place very well. It’s a good place to relax. And then I come back for the last week before Valencia and stay a few days at home.

Q: Has it felt different this year with no testing?

It feels a little bit different, but not too much. You have one and a half weeks between the races, but normally there’s a lot to do. You go to the races and you travel around. I have been so busy this year, even busier than last year when we were testing, so I didn’t really feel the difference. However we haven’t had a disadvantage from not testing as all the parts we’ve developed this year have worked well when we’ve put them on the car.

Q: How do you feel about the race in Valencia?

It’s fair to say it’s not one of my favourites. Last year I was really looking forward to the weekend, because I like street circuits and I have good memories of Monaco and Macau. These are real street circuits, but Valencia was disappointing because it was so flat and wide, and there are no real corners.It’s not very difficult, very easy to drive, just straight on and braking for some hairpins. It’s not that challenging, but physically it can be tough as it’s very hot.

Q: Nevertheless are you confident that you can do well this year?

Last year the race pace was not so bad, but in qualifying I was struggling with the tyres. In the race I lost the car in Turn One about two thirds through the race, so it was not the best weekend! This time for us it should be quite good because we’ll get our new update package on the car, which should help us quite a lot performance wise.