Petroltorque wrote:The Nexus of Caterham's problem is Mark Smith. A technical director of questionable quality. As I understand it the 2013 car is a refinement of the present chassis. Choosing to the Red Bull KERS has always confused me. Its the smallest least reliable unit and designed to not compromise Newey's emphasis on aero. I expect Caterham to be behind Marussia next year. It's worth remembering, were it not for Vergne's stupidity in Brazil, Caterham would have finished outside the top 10.
That stupidity from Verge is part of the game., there was also stupidity from Hulkenburg and other crashes. Thats all part of F1 racing. The same thing happened for Marrusia in Singapore. Looking over an average F1 season Caterham was faster than Marrusia so that was not stolen.
Did Caterham underperform this season, yes they did, especialy in the second half. Mostly because their biggest upgrade package that they brought to Silverstone just did not work. Before that, they were close closing the gap to Torro Rosso.
Will Caterham improve from last year, I would say, yes they will. They have John Iley now overlooking the making of the 2013 car and they have a bigger facility and increased their number of staff.
Will it be enough to catch Torro Rosso and the other midfield teams, I dont think so. As the gap is too big at the moment it is difficult to find a hugh improvement. However it is possible, who would have thought last year that Williams and the Saubers were cars that were capable of being on the podiums?
