Sutil hopes for Spa repeat at Monza

Adrian Sutil hopes to repeat his strong performance at Spa – where he finished fifth – at Monza.

Last year’s Italian Grand Prix saw the Force India driver score the best result of his career to date:

Based on the speed and handling of the car in Spa I’m now really looking forward to Monza. We don’t have the top speed advantage we had last year so it’s going to be another close weekend, but we do know that we are amongst the quickest and that gives us a big chance to be in Q3 and then getting in the points.

I got a great finish there last year – fourth, my best finish in F1 so far, and to get that again would be amazing.
Adrian Sutil

The team conducted a straight-line aerodynamic test last week to work on its exhaust-blown diffuser:

We’ve been doing a lot of work back at the factory on the blown diffuser, and conducted a successful aero test last week to develop further. We will also use a low downforce package to suit the top speeds we reach in Monza, which is a further refinement of the Spa package.

We’re cautiously optimistic and quietly confident – if it all comes together I would hope we could show a similar level of performance and results to Spa, but there are so many varying factors that you just can’t take anything for granted at this stage in the season.
Vijay Mallya

It’s Vitantonio Liuzzi’s race and the Italian driver says he enjoys to unique challenge of Monza:

It’s different from all the other circuits because you use such a low level of downforce. You never have a car with such low grip, so you have to get used to it on Friday practice. It’s a circuit I really like to race on, because you feel the car really light. It slides in the corners, and you drift with all four wheels.

In a way it’s completely different to all the other races. You might think that with six corners it’s not such a big deal, but you have to fly over the kerbs, especially into Ascari. You have to understand which way to use the first kerb to put the car to have a good exit. In fact the key in Monza is to have a good exit out of all of the corners, because the straights are so long that you can gain a huge amount of time.

The positioning into the corners is the key, but flying over the kerbs is not easy, especially if you have a stiff car that bounces you back. There are not many corners, but they are really technical.
Vitantonio Liuzzi

He added he’s not sure whether Force India or the other teams will use their F-ducts at Monza:

I don’t think every team will use the F-Duct in Monza, because the level of downforce you use is so little that you’re not paying that much for it.

We believe that in Monza we will be competitive. Before Spa we knew that everyone had upgraded their cars to a good level of top speed, even though we know our car is really strong on low drag.
Vitantonio Liuzzi

2010 Italian Grand Prix