Bob Fernley claims Adrian Sutil needed a confidence booster – Formula 1 News
Force India’s deputy team principal, Bob Fernley, has claimed that Adrian Sutil needed a solid result in order to get his confidence back, especially after struggling in a few races
because of bad luck.
The German driver finished fifth in the Monaco GP and completed some brave overtaking moves, which would have delighted his fans. First, he managed to qualify in the top-10, which
was quite important in Monte Carlo. Then, he managed to stay alert throughout the race day and outfoxed some of the most senior drivers like Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso.
Fernley said, “We all knew that the underlying [performance] has been there, but when you have three or four races where it keeps falling apart for you, from Adrian’s point of view,
he needed it for his confidence.”
Sutil was unable to earn a seat in the 2012 season and it seemed that his career would be over. However, he saw an opportunity at Force India when Nico Hulkenberg decided to switch
to Sauber last year.
Although the Silverstone based squad made a late decision, they decided to bring back Sutil in the team, who had partnered Paul di Resta in the past with the same outfit.
Although the critics expected the returning driver to struggle in his comeback season, he performed really well since the very first race and has been challenging some of the front
runners too occasionally.
Looking at his confidence, Fernley added, “That mental strength was the whole reason that we wanted to work with Adrian this year. When you have had a year out and you have three
or four [difficult] races early on, of course it's undermining. As a team, we have supported him, so he has not had to feel threatened by that and has responded well to it.”
At the moment, Force India are placed fifth in the Constructor’s Championship ahead of McLaren, which is quite an encouraging sign for them.
However, the midfield team needs both cars in points with consistency in order to hold onto their current position. They will not be able to challenge the top four teams, but have
got a solid chance of finishing ahead of the Woking based outfit.
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