The Sauber F1 Team have one race weekend left to score points in 2014 to prevent the teams first ever point-less season, after both Esteban Gutierrez and Adrian Sutil finished outside the points at the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos.
Gutierrez battled hard in Brazil but was unable to secure those elusive points, running inside the top ten early before dropping down to fourteenth at the finish. The Mexican driver, who will be leaving the team at the end of the year, felt he performed well in the first half of the race before tyre wear became a bigger issue and he fell down the order and out of contention for points.
“We fought all the way through the race, and it was looking good until half distance,” said Gutierrez. “When I tried to fight with a car in front of me I lost a lot of grip and the tyres quickly started to overheat. It was very difficult to cope with the tyre grip.
“There is one more race, and we have to keep pushing in order to accomplish our objective to score points.”
Sutil was forced to start from the pit lane after developing an issue with the cooling of his car, and could not find the speed to challenge for points, ultimately ending up sixteenth. He felt it was quite an uneventful race, but was frustrated to end up so low down.
“It was an uneventful race for me,” said Sutil. “I had to start from the pit lane due to a problem with the cooling configuration. It is a pity, as we quite often have problems. As a driver you give your best in qualifying, but then you have to start the race from the last position.
“In addition, there was an incident during my first pit stop, which cost me some time. It is frustrating, but we did our best today.”
