Hulkenberg not Sauber's only story

Esteban Gutierrez made a surprising admission at last year's Brazilian Grand Prix when he faced the press for the first time since being confirmed as a Sauber driver.

Far from the usual bluster of someone stepping up to Formula 1, he declared frankly that "it doesn't make sense to say I am 100 per cent ready; it is difficult to say or judge right now how ready I am."

Inevitably, this grabbed the headlines. But while the Mexican later back-pedalled, what he said was entirely correct. There's no shame in it, for the combination of the testing limits and the complexity of a 21st-century grand prix car makes it incredibly difficult for any rookie legitimately to describe himself as ready.

Sure enough, Gutierrez did struggle in the first half of this year. Compounded by a difficult-to-drive car, one in which even Nico Hulkenberg was hard-pressed to score, and his experiencing most of the bad weather in pre-season testing, he made very little impression.

The only impact he was able to make early in the campaign was a crunching one into the back of Adrian Sutil's Force India during the Chinese Grand Prix. It was a crash used to condemn him by some, but it was the definitive rookie error.

Gutierrez ploughed into the back of Adrian Sutil in China © XPB

It was largely a tale of Q1 exits and finishes in the teens for F1's youngest driver, whose only encouragement was a little-heralded 11th place and a fortuitous fastest lap in May's Spanish GP.

Most had written Gutierrez off by the time the August break came around.

He had been knocked out in Q1 more often than not and, other than in Spain, he'd never seriously threatened the points. But the team remained impressed with his work ethic and what has happened since is a stark reminder of all those who rush to judgement of rookies.

Few would have predicted what happened at Suzuka on Sunday, when Gutierrez finished a strong seventh, just 20 seconds behind Hulkenberg, to earn his first F1 points.

The result has been on the cards since the August break. At Spa he looked brisk in practice but didn't get it hooked up in qualifying and fell in Q1. Even so, he raced pretty well but to no avail. At Monza he was an outside bet to make Q3, but again failed to get it all together on Saturday afternoon.

The day before free practice in Singapore, Gutierrez talked of the need to go into qualifying without a safety net. Before, he had been sent out with time to spare, the chance to bolt on an extra lap to his run with a little fuel reserve. He knew he had the pace, and it was time for the stabilisers to come off.

During practice he was unremarkable, but come qualifying he made it to the top 10 shootout, outqualifying Hulkenberg. The race was a bit of a struggle, and at the Korean GP he again qualified in the top 10 but dropped back in the Felipe Massa-induced Turn 3 confusion, and was never able to get back into the frame.

In this context, those points in Japan, where he qualified a mere two tenths slower than Hulkenberg, did not come out of the blue.

Gutierrez has come of age since August, breaking into Q3 twice © LAT

The improvement of the Sauber has played its part, but Gutierrez has also come of age since the August break. In that situation, many drivers of his age would have wilted and not had the mental strength to pull through.

"It's very easy because the main pressure comes from myself," says Gutierrez of how he kept his head.

"I'm the first person who wants to achieve a good result and I'm the first person that wants to feel capable of being in F1, so it's not about fighting against other people's comments, it's not about criticising back, it's about the result.

"Not only that, but the points we scored, the way the race went, the way I was able to fight, the way I was able to defend in the last few laps. This is the most important thing for myself, and I will keep this feeling and use it to move forward in the following seasons."

Gutierrez's drive was genuinely good. He showed a willingness to bash wheels with Felipe Massa along the way and kept Nico Rosberg's faster Mercedes at bay in the closing stages.

This represented the first time Gutierrez has, give or take, nailed a weekend throughout. He probably should have made Q3, and was unfortunate to be as low as 14th on the grid.

"Esteban was unlucky laptime-wise to be so far back [on the grid] but had a fantastic opening lap, which made his race," explains Sauber head of trackside engineering Tom McCullough.

"From there, his management of the tyres was good, he mixed it with the big boys on a pretty brutal track; you don't get away with any mistakes here. He did what we knew he was going to do for some time and it's going to do his confidence the world of good.

Gutierrez held Nico Rosberg at bay in the closing stages at Suzuka © XPB

"They were proper points as well. It wasn't a lucky 10th; it was a genuine weekend on which he drove well throughout. He deserves it so much for all the hard work he and his two engineers have put in.

"The team has believed in him for a long time and it's really nice to see him deliver."

Gutierrez's attitude has always impressed the team. This is in stark contrast to his compatriot Sauber predecessor Sergio Perez, who did sometimes frustrate with what some saw as his arrogance.

Fortunately for Gutierrez, Sauber is accustomed to giving inexperienced drivers the leeway they need to develop.

But it's also a team that recognises when a driver needs to kick on. As Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn points out, there's a balance to be struck between giving a driver time and not pushing them on.

"He has always had the right attitude, but I felt he didn't make that step out of his comfort zone [early on]," says Kaltenborn. "He would go to a certain level, but was missing a little bit to go beyond that.

"At the beginning of the season, he used to be happy with a 12th or 13th position. We would say you can't be happy with that but he said, 'I'm not, but I'm happy because it's my first year.' That's where he has changed his mindset and realised he had to get out there and do more."

This reflects well on Gutierrez's attitude. During his junior career, for all the promise he showed in winning Formula BMW Europe in 2008 and the inaugural GP3 crown two years later, there remained question marks about his ultimate potential.

His two GP2 campaigns, during which he won four races, finishing third in last year's standings, were inconclusive. Capable of being very fast, there were some needless errors and progress was stuttering.

GP3 glory was followed by two inconclusive years in GP2 © LAT

He came into F1 as a driver not without promise, but certainly not with the same obvious potential as, say, Valtteri Bottas or Jules Bianchi. But crucially, he is still progressing along the learning curve. The question now is whether he can build on the level he's reached now and improve beyond simply the level of a decent grand prix driver.

"Obviously, it's an exponential thing; when you do something right you go to the next level," says Gutierrez. "Every time I make a step, I know how I did it. This is the way I have developed myself through my career. This is my character and how I will look to do things in the future."

This is not just Gutierrez saying what he believes people want to hear. The team sees the same qualities in him.

"Along with his engineers, he has worked very hard on understanding the car and from an early stage has been good on development direction," says McCullough. "The car has improved through that as well as the performance upgrades, with the whole team understanding the car better.

"Every day, Esteban goes away from the track having learned, and therefore he improves. He always had the potential, but if you have that attitude with a bit more experience the results start to come. It's no surprise to see what's happening to him now."

Unfortunately, circumstances may yet conspire against Gutierrez. His future in F1 beyond the next few races is desperately uncertain and there is a very realistic chance that his F1 career might not stretch beyond 19 starts.

But based on recent progress, he has done enough to merit a second season to build upon the foundations he has laid this year.

His ultimate potential is uncertain and the evidence so far does not flag him up as a potential star, but if the current upward trend continues it will be interesting to see where he ends up given a couple of years' experience under his belt. Whether he gets the chance to is another matter.

Gutierrez was right when he suggested he might not be ready. But having kept his head above water in choppy waters in the first half of this year, he is certainly ready now.