Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsHaas F1 Team

Gutierrez: 'I don’t think it is bad luck ... it is clear mistakes'

©WRi2

Esteban Gutierrez has described his latest reliability problems as "clear mistakes" rather than bad luck after completing just six laps during Friday practice in China.

Having retired from each of the opening two races through no fault of his own, Gutierrez's run continued in FP1 when an electronics problem confined him to the garage after just two laps. The afternoon session saw Gutierrez have to pit on his first run with his rear brakes on fire and his frustrations started to show after the end of FP2.

"It was something related to the electronics on the gearbox [in FP1]," Gutierrez said. "One cable that was not properly connected. Things keep happening, different things.

"It is very frustrating but at the moment my job is to keep the focus over the weekend for the rest of the weekend and build up the speed step by step in practice tomorrow ready for qualifying."

When it was put to Gutierrez he is suffering bad luck, he replied: "I don’t think it is bad luck at the moment, it is clear mistakes.

"We just need to work on not having those mistakes."

However, Gutierrez says he is determined to recover the situation as best he can this weekend.

"I just have to keep looking forward and solve it. We need to find a solution to this and keep fighting.

"I lost the full day, I have no data and no reference at the moment. I will have to build up progressively in FP3 and get ready quickly for qualifying."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.