Mat Coch writes:

Although he didn't score a point Esteban Gutierrez's stock within the Sauber team has risen on the back of his Singapore Grand Prix performance.

The Mexican driver had a strong weekend, starting with his debut appearance in the final phase of qualifying - though he ironically opted not to compete in the session in order to save tyres for the race.

But the very fact he was there is a sign of what Sauber considers a step improvement from the 22-year-old. That opinion was reinforced on Sunday as Gutierrez started amongst many of the sports leading protagonists for the first time and while he was found wanting in some respects it was an encouraging performance.

"If you look at his race that lack of experience is often visible," team boss Monisha Kaltenborn told Pitpass after the race.

"He said that it was a very, very tough race for him because it is suddenly a different situation when you're driving further towards the front rather than towards the back," she added. "That's another challenge for a rookie and he didn't do a bad job for the first time in this kind of a situation."

After a difficult start to the season, to say the least, Sauber has begun to show signs of improvement in recent races. At Monza teammate Nico Hulkenberg was able to run with the leaders while the German was in the points again in Singapore.

The upturn in performance for the Hinwill squad has coincided with an improvement in Gutierrez' own form, though Kaltenborn suggests he still needs to improve his performance in the race.

"The important thing is that he has very intense communication with his engineers, with his race engineer also with our head of track engineering to understand where he maybe made some mistakes, where he could have reacted a bit differently," she explained.

"I think he had a very rough start to the season but I think since Nurburgring or even Hungary he's shown how he is really improving, especially on Fridays and Saturdays. He was a bit unfortunate not to be able to show that all and get it together in qualifying but this time he did. He's taken the next step now."

Like a number of teams Sauber is yet to confirm its driver line-up for 2014, though Sergey Sirotkin is expected to make his debut for the team pending the FIA granting him a superlicense.

Yesterday's performance therefore came at a useful time for Gutierrez, though it remains to be seen whether he can keep his drive or if the team instead opts to keep highly rated Hulkenberg. Kaltenborn however was giving nothing away when asked where Gutierrez or Hulkenberg currently stand in those negotiations.

"Who will drive for us next year we will announce in due course," she affirmed.

"We know that Nico is a very good driver and that's also the reason we took him onboard," she smiled. "Esteban has to learn from his experience and you need to have those experiences to learn from them!"

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