Ravetto happy with Caterham's continuous improvement
Caterham came very close to Q2 during today's qualifying session with Marcus Ericsson only narrowly missing out on 17th place. Team mate Kamui Kobayashi admits to a difficult weekend so far and qualified 19th.
Manfredi Ravetto, Team Principal: “We haven’t stopped improving and we can be very pleased with what the team achieved today and in recent races compared to where it was four months ago. Not only did we qualify ahead of Marussia, but we also out-qualified a Lotus and our fight with them has become very consistent. We’ve made small but steady steps forward since the start of the second half of the season in Belgium, and here in Russia we’ve confirmed that with hard work and determination, we can get closer and closer to our main rivals and beat them like we’ve done today. I’m very proud of the team – we’re doing a great job and we need to continue in this direction.”
Marcus Ericsson, car #9, chassis CT05-#04: “What a great qualifying session! I did a very good lap and the car behaved very well; we can be very pleased with qualifying in 17th position here in Russia. It’s a bit frustrating to be so close to Q2, but overall I think that we can be very happy with what we achieved today. This morning’s FP3 was another good session where we built on what we learned yesterday and continued to make progress. I went into qualifying feeling confident in the car and I knew what I had to do, and it all came together nicely. Now we need to look forward to the race tomorrow, I’m really up for another good race. Of course, Jules is very much in our minds and our thoughts and prayers are always with him, it’s not being an easy weekend in terms of emotions, we will all be racing for him here tomorrow.”
Kamui Kobayashi, car #10, chassis CT05-#02: “It’s not being the easiest of weekends for me here in Russia, as I haven’t completed that many laps up until now and I am still learning the track every time I go out. Having said that, I think I’ve improved a lot in a very short time here in Sochi and, even though my qualifying lap was not perfect, we were able to qualify ahead of a Lotus as well as a Marussia. I’m sure I will be much more confident in the race tomorrow and I look forward to tomorrow – a day where of course our thoughts and prayers will continue to be with Jules.”
Cedrik Staudohar, Renault Sport F1 track support leader: “It was a fantastic effort from Marcus right at the end of Q1 to get so close to making the cut, so we’re a little bit disappointed to have missed out on that. However, it does show that we’re right there with the guys ahead and our long run pace looks especially good, so we’re optimistic for tomorrow. The Power Units have run like clockwork in practice and qualifying, which meant we could also focus on energy optimisation.”
