UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > Teams defend struggling drivers

Sutil and Piquet under fire

Apr.7 (GMM) Force India team owner Vijay Mallya defended Adrian Sutil on Sunday, after a third consecutive bad weekend for the German driver.

While his veteran teammate Giancarlo Fisichella had experts gushing over a strong twelfth place on Sunday, Sutil got caught up in the first lap chaos and finished the race dead last and two laps down.

Following two previous difficult weekends, where the 25-year-old was outclassed by Fisichella and the victim of technical trouble, some had started to predict an early end to Sutil's career.

But Mallya said at Sakhir, where Sutil's actual pace relative to Fisichella has been better throughout the weekend compared with Australia and Malaysia: "I'm not worried with his performance.

"Today his car was damaged early that resulted in a broken nose. So I'm not going to hold it against him," the Indian told the news agency PTI.

Also defended in Bahrain following a less than shining opening three races was Nelson Piquet, the Brazilian rookie and Renault teammate for Fernando Alonso.

"I am very pleased with the start to his year other than the fact that I feel we as a team have let him down a bit," said the French team's engineering boss Pat Symonds.

Written: Mon, 07 Apr 2008 09:17:37