By IANS,
New Delhi : The pain of not finishing fourth in the Monaco Grand Prix has instilled a new-found confidence in Force India FI team who are confident than ever before to get closer to the podium in the remaining races.
Force India driver Adrian Sutil was in tears after Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen crashed onto his car from behind, dashing his hopes of a fourth-place finish. But the German has overcome the tragedy and is looking ahead to perform even better.
Team boss Colin Kolles has hailed Sutil as the hero of the Monaco Grand Prix.
“After the race he was in tears. But it was not only him (crying), there were a lot of people. I told him: ‘You are the hero of the race’. I think people will recognise this,” Kolles said.
Kolles said the Monaco performance could act as a spring board to improved results in the future.
“We still have Canada, which could be a potentially good race, we have Spa, we have Fuji. There are some more races to come. We have to push for a better car. We cannot hope that every race will be wet.”
Sutil admitted he was heartbroken after the accident, but now he is taking positives from the race.
“Monaco was an amazing race for me. It was like last year, but this one was even better. I had so many laps, I was racing other cars and doing fastest laps. It was one of my best races.”
“It was a big boost and a very good one for me. I started the season with some problems. The last couple of races went better and better, especially in Monaco. We have to concentrate on forgetting this race. There were many positive things, to go on with our work and try to get to the front.”
Sutil’s performance in Monaco could not have come at a better time, with questions being asked about the German’s abilities after a difficult start to the season.
Kolles insists the team never had any concerns about Sutil’s performances in the first few races.
“Adrian started the season a little bit of a difficult way,” explained Kolles. “But he had always had the backing of the team and me personally, so there was no uncertainty.
“We knew that he had to catch up in certain things and he built it up. And Monaco is one of his favourite tracks, so if the conditions were right then something special could happen. And we were very, very close to something special.”
And Kolles also refused to criticise Raikkonen for the crash — with the Ferrari driver having lost control of his car on the first lap after a safety car restart.
“I do not have to blame Kimi. He did a mistake, it’s a race incident and there’s nothing more to say. It’s unfortunate that it was Kimi, who is a friend, and that it happened with him. But what can I say, that is life.”