Adrian Sutil believes having grand prix winner and formula one veteran Giancarlo Fisichella as his teammate this year will be good for his career.
The 25-year-old German was already earmarked as a rising star of the sport last year, when as a rookie he proved more than a match for the occupants of the sister Spyker, including Christijan Albers and Sakon Yamamoto.
But going up against Fisichella in the team’s new guise Force India, Sutil agrees, will be a more meaningful yardstick.
“I see this as very important, and I can benefit a lot from that,” he said in an interview with the portal motorline.cc.
“For this reason it is also a crucial year for me. Last year it was difficult in this regard. Albers was very good but in the end he was dealing with a lot of problems.
“Then Markus (Winkelhock) came in without any test days, and Sakon was definitely not the fastest.
“But with Giancarlo and I — I think we will push each other,” Sutil added.
He admits that the rumours of other teams’ interest in him for 2008, including Toyota and McLaren, were very welcome.
“Obviously it was nice to hear my name connected with other teams, but ultimately nothing came of it and I am still here.
“But what I wanted to achieve last year, I did; namely, to attract some attention and bring my name into the conversations,” Sutil said.
