The Sauber team have admitted that they are overweight.
But rather than coming back from the winter break having eaten too much over Christmas, the teams issues are in all down to the new Formula One regulations.
The weight limitations the teams face for this season are great with the increase in weight from the power units with the new engines and Energy Recovery Systems.
The minimum weight of car and driver is set at 692kg, which is an increase of 50kg compared to 2013, with the minimum power unit weight set at 145kg.
However it is thought that the Ferrari power-unit is quite a bit over that minimum weight limit and that has left Sauber struggling.
‘The weight is very hard for us to achieve at the moment, We are overweight and step-by-step we are going to improve that, it’s going to take some time. Adrian Sutil told Autosport Magazine.
Team-mate Gutierrez, is the second lightest driver on the Formula One grid and he added: ‘We still have a lot of work to do as we are quite a lot overweight, But this is something we can work on easily from my side and we are doing little steps which will come during the season very quickly hopefully.’
But with Sutil one of the tallest and heaviest drivers on the grid, he believes that the rules need tweaking.
I cannot lose more [weight], this is just how I am, I am a tall man so there are no other things I can do.
Sutil stands at 6ft tall and weighs 11st 11 lbs or 75kg.
It is estimated that on an average lap, at an average Formula One circuit an additional 10kg would cost a team around 0.36 seconds per lap.
With Gutierrez weighing in at 61kg, that means just on driver weight alone, Sutil is losing around 0.5 seconds per lap to his team-mate.
Sutil concluded: ‘Small drivers have a clear advantage. It’s obvious, everyone knows it and I hope to have some adjustments in the regulations very soon.
‘This is very different compared to the years before as tall drivers now have a clear disadvantage in laptime.’
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Sutil unhappy with weight issues
