The German driver reckoned, however, that he was very pleased with the pace shown by the VJM02 during the rainy race at Shanghai. After a miserable performance in qualifying, when he and teammate Giancarlo Fisichella scored only the 19th and 20th best times of the Q1, Sutil managed to recover track positions impressively during the race and was close to producing a stunning performance for Force India.
He echoed Vijay Mallya's comments days before the Chinese Grand Prix, saying the 2009 car feels stronger and stronger and it's only a mater of time until finally making the scoreboard.
“We nearly made it to the end. It's important that the Force India car is somewhere near the front. It's good for us, good for the team and it lift our spirits to go on. It was very disappointing, but you have to get over it. There's always a next race, that's the good thing,” admitted Sutil after the Sunday race.
The German driver admitted, however, that Force India should be praying more often for the rain to step in for the two VJM02s to really have a shot at making the points. With the latest updates put in place by most of the teams ahead of the Bahrain GP, it would be difficult to battle the “big guns” in the next few races. However, the new components developed by the team for the Sakhir race are expected to provide a boost in performance for both Force India drivers.
“The other teams have put a downforce step on the car as well, but hopefully it is enough to close the gap a bit. But we still need to hope for these conditions to really make it into the points,” added Sutil.
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