Adrian Sutil has played down fellow rookie Lewis Hamilton’s claim that the Spyker racer could give his more experienced teammate Christijan Albers a “big wake-up call” in 2007.
“I think it’s going to be like (BMW’s Robert) Kubica joining Nick Heidfeld at BMW,” 21-year-old Hamilton, to debut for McLaren this year, told the British magazine Autosport last week.
He said: “Adrian will do the same to Albers.”
Hamilton and Munich-born Sutil, who is nearly 24, were teammates in F3 in 2005, and it is understood that the pair are still friends and speak regularly by phone.
Referring to Spyker’s Dutch incumbent Albers, Hamilton continued: “In fact I expect (Sutil) to be quicker.”
To F1’s official website, however, Sutil admitted that he and Briton Hamilton are still friends but said he expected Albers to be a “nice and fast” teammate.
Sutil, who nearly secured a Toyota test seat for 2007, added: “I do have to learn a lot.
“But to be honest, every driver wants to beat his teammate. If I wasn’t convinced of that, I shouldn’t be in formula one.
“But I know I need time to learn.”
GMMF1
DailyF1News.com
