Caterham aware of 'small step forward' with new car
Caterham enjoyed a positive day, despite seeing it cut short by a shower in the afternoon. Interesting though is that the team claims it has made a small step forward compared to last year, but that there is still a lot of work to do.
Heikki Kovalainen: “A pretty good day. We were able to complete this morning’s plan and we have found a good direction on setup that is giving me real confidence in the balance which is what we wanted before we head to Melbourne. The afternoon session was cut short by the rain but not before we had finished the tests we wanted to do on start procedures, pre-race programs and all the background checks you have to get done over the winter tests. I think we’ve now caught up with the time we lost last week so now we need to make sure Vitaly has a good day tomorrow and put us in the best possible shape for the first race in just over two weeks.”
Mark Smith, Technical Director: “Day three here has been another successful day for the team. We had a couple of new parts on the car this morning and we have been able to satisfactorily test their performance, as well as running through the broader program we had planned for today. We have also made progress on each of the tyre compounds we tested today and the times we set show that we have definitely made positive progress today. Tomorrow will be more of the same for Vitaly, making sure we find a baseline setup he is comfortable with and running through a very similar program to today.”
Riad Asmat, Caterham Group Chief Executive Officer: “Another good day and more signs of the sort of progress we wanted to make at this test, even with the interruption the rain caused this afternoon. Heikki’s lap this morning shows that we have taken a small step forward in pace compared to where we finished the 2011 season, but we still have a lot of work to do and we know we can find more pace from this year’s package. For me, one of the most encouraging signs of how far we have come is the fact that we keep edging ever closer to the midfield and yet there is absolutely no complacency in the team. Everybody is working even harder than ever to help us bridge that gap and with a team spirit like that we are putting ourselves in a very good position.”
Chassis: CT01-#3
Total laps: 64
Best lap: 1.22.630 (lap 43)
