Force India drivers to be warned
16 April 2013 1:41 AM GMT
Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta will be reprimanded by Sahara Force India for their opening lap collision at the Formula One Chinese Grand Prix.
Both Sutil and di Resta blamed each other for the incident, without which the Scot could have finished the race higher than eighth. Sutil had to retire after he was assaulted by Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez on Lap 4.
Deputy team principal Robert Fernley said he will be talking to his drivers and analysing the footage of the incident. ‘We just need to sit them down and go through the video because it’s not really what we need to be doing on the first lap,’ Fernley was quoted as saying by Autosport.
‘They are both good enough, and just need to sort it out between them. ‘I don’t think it’s difficult to manage it, we just need to make sure they clearly understand that it’s not acceptable, not on the first lap.’
Fernley felt Sutil could have handled the situation better. ‘You can have things happen when you get pushed into positions (that you don’t want to be in) and we need to understand it fully ourselves.
‘But I suspect that Adrian got catapulted off the kerb, something like that happened so he didn’t give Paul enough room there.’ Had it not been for the collision, Fernely said di Resta could have finished fifth.
‘It could have cost us more dearly, but fortunately it was a good, well-run race,’ he said. ‘It was a hard race, but we managed to pull Paul back through and the strategy worked. ‘We targeted seventh, and without the first lap incident we could have got Jenson (Button) as well.’
Force India will be looking to get maximum points in next Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix. They have 14 points from the first three races in 2013.   Â
Both Sutil and di Resta blamed each other for the incident, without which the Scot could have finished the race higher than eighth. Sutil had to retire after he was assaulted by Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez on Lap 4.
Deputy team principal Robert Fernley said he will be talking to his drivers and analysing the footage of the incident. ‘We just need to sit them down and go through the video because it’s not really what we need to be doing on the first lap,’ Fernley was quoted as saying by Autosport.
‘They are both good enough, and just need to sort it out between them. ‘I don’t think it’s difficult to manage it, we just need to make sure they clearly understand that it’s not acceptable, not on the first lap.’
Fernley felt Sutil could have handled the situation better. ‘You can have things happen when you get pushed into positions (that you don’t want to be in) and we need to understand it fully ourselves.
‘But I suspect that Adrian got catapulted off the kerb, something like that happened so he didn’t give Paul enough room there.’ Had it not been for the collision, Fernely said di Resta could have finished fifth.
‘It could have cost us more dearly, but fortunately it was a good, well-run race,’ he said. ‘It was a hard race, but we managed to pull Paul back through and the strategy worked. ‘We targeted seventh, and without the first lap incident we could have got Jenson (Button) as well.’
Force India will be looking to get maximum points in next Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix. They have 14 points from the first three races in 2013.   Â
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