Sutil to race without water bottle to cut weight

Bigger drivers in F1 like Sutil are at a severe disadvantage to the midget drivers

Adrian Sutil says he will be racing without a drinks bottle at this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix, as the Sauber driver battles to make his car as light as possible amid Formula 1's controversial weight limit.

Weight has become a massive talking point in 2014, with the sport's heavier power units meaning that drivers have been struggling to hit the minimum weight target with their cars, despite an increase from last year.

As one of the sport's heavier drivers, Sutil says he is losing out massively as a result of the current rules.

"We [heavier drivers] have to lose so much weight," he explained. "There is not much we can lose anyway, so we can't even train because we have to lose the smaller muscles. It is a difficult situation and I don't think it's fair.

"Small drivers can eat what they want but we are just naturally heavier and we get a penalty of half-a-second a lap, or more. Not because the smaller ones are better drivers, they are just lighter. That is not how it should be."

He added: "For Bahrain it'll be one and a half hours in the car, no drink. In Malaysia I had a little bit of tea.

"There is a danger of fainting and dehydration. We are driving at more than 300km/h along the straight, so it's not so easy any more. You can't guarantee that every driver is 100 per cent from a physical point of view."

Although the issue has been raised at numerous drivers' meetings in the past, Sutil revealed that some of the lighter drivers have acted to block a weight limit increase in a bid to maintain a competitive advantage.