Sutil feels ready for GP debut

Sutil beat Portuguese Tiago Monteiro to the second seat at the Spyker team, having impressed the Dutch squad during his Friday practice outings in 2006.

"It is the dream of all racing drivers to be in this world and it was great news, I couldn't believe it," said Sutil during the launch of the new car at Silverstone.

"I was always hoping to get a test seat or something like that, or a real opportunity to drive the whole season, but I didn't expect to be a GP driver so quick. I know the opportunity I have and I will try to do everything to do a really, really well.

"It is never easy, but this makes it interesting. I can do it, I can handle it, I think I learned enough in my past, I had a really successful year last year in Japan, and I was running with professional race teams and I am ready for F1 for sure."

The German, who won the Japanese F3 title last year, was runner-up to McLaren's Lewis Hamilton in the F3 Euro Series in 2005.

Earlier this year, Hamilton tipped Sutil to shine in Formula One and give teammate Christijan Albers a wake-up call. And while the German driver has welcomed Hamilton's comments, he claims the most important thing will be to help move the team forward.

"It is always nice to hear that," he said. "As Christijan said it is good to have two fast teammates, everyone is fast, both of us, and it is good to push each other, it moves us forward and you can get some more percentage of performance out of the driver.

"At the moment the most important thing is to work together and work as a team to bring the team to the front. We are starting from the back and want to be successful in the future. We have to work as a team and be strong altogether."