Esteban Gutierrez is refusing to let his disappointing end to the Monaco Grand Prix hold him back and stop him from pushing for points in the next few races.
Gutierrez was in line to score his first points of the season at the last race in Monaco, but a mistake at La Rascasse forced him to retire from seventh place.
“I knew I had very strong cars behind me, and everything was going perfect up to then,” he explained in Canada. “I was trying to cope with a little bit of understeer I was having on the car, trying to anticipate a little bit the corners. I went a bit too far on the edge.
“It was definitely one of the most painful mistakes of my career, because of the position we were in and the race that was developing.”
Sauber has struggled so far this season, and is yet to record a top ten finish. However, Gutierrez is still confident of making an improvement and scoring some points in the near future, believing that the team will not let this error in Monaco get them down.
“I think that [Monaco] has to go behind, and keep on with the strength that we’re having because the reading as a driver and coming through it’s very important to keep on going,” the Mexican explained. “It’s really painful because it’s a missed opportunity for everyone, but this cannot hold us back.”
Gutierrez’s Formula 1 career so far has been a difficult one. After taking – in his own words – 80% of the season to get used to the new car and the sport, he managed to score some points at last year’s Japanese Grand Prix with a seventh place finish, but has not finished in the top ten since that weekend in Suzuka.
After a fine junior career that saw him win the GP3 title in 2010, Gutierrez will be hoping that his sophomore year in Formula 1 is not his last. He will undoubtedly be under pressure to keep his seat for 2014, given that Sergey Sirotkin, Giedo van der Garde and Simona de Silvestro are all targeting a seat at the Swiss team.
