Pic happy as Van der Garde has frustrating race
The feelings at Caterham were a bit mixed after today's British Grand Prix. While Charles Pic was happy to finish 15th, Giedo van der Garde had a frustrating afternoon and crossed the finish line in 18th place.
Charles Pic, car 20, chassis CT03-#6, 15th: “I think that was a pretty good race, I’m pleased with how it went. We were managing the tyre deg for most of the afternoon but just before the last safety car came out I was ahead of Bottas and looking at an exciting last few laps. We finally ended up 15th which is not too bad, and we were comfortably ahead of our nearest competitors so it’s a reasonably positive result, despite losing a lot of the gains we’d made when the second safety car came out.
“For me this has been a good weekend, one where we’ve started to get a bit back to the performance levels we saw in Bahrain and Spain. The pitstops were good, we ran to a strategy that gave me a chance to fight the Williams cars until the flag and we have a lot more information about the updates we brought here, both from today and the aero work we did yesterday. Overall this puts us in a much better position than we were in when we left Canada so now we’ll go straight to Germany and aim to continue this upward curve there.”
Giedo van der Garde, car 21, chassis CT03-#4, 18th: “That was a bit of a frustrating afternoon to be honest, but there wasn’t much more I could do. We started the race running with a strategy we’d begun yesterday in FP3 and in quali which was all about managing the tyre deg as long as possible so we could take advantage of anything that happened ahead. The plan was running ok and we were on target for managing the deg levels but then the first safety car came out and as we’d already boxed we effectively lost track time to everyone who hadn’t stopped. With the position we were in then in the race there wasn’t a lot more we could do so we continued with the plan and it was working ok for the last stint, but then we had the second safety car straight after I’d stopped again so it was back to where we’d been at the start.
“As we only had a few laps left and I was on new mediums I was able to push to the flag and had a good battle with Chilton right until we crossed the line, practically together. I did pass him with a couple of laps left, but it was very tight on track and I had to give the place back which is obviously a shame, but we had a clean fight and without the safety cars I think I’d have been clear of him.
“Even though we went into this weekend knowing we had a fight on our hands I think we’ve made a bit of progress, getting us nearer to where we want to be relative to our nearest rivals. Next it’s Germany on a track I like racing on and, coming straight after Silverstone, we can keep pushing on. That’s what this season’s all about, keep learning, keep fighting and never give up.”
Cyril Abiteboul, Team Principal, Caterham F1 Team: “I’m certainly happier leaving our second home race of the season than I was when we left Montreal, but we must work continue to work, harder than ever. Seeing Charles towards the end of the race with clear air between him and the Marussia behind, and targeting a fight with Bottas and Gutierrez is a sign that we’re getting back to the performance level we are targeting for this season. However, it is quite frustrating that with such an eventful race we weren’t able to use this as an opportunity to record a more positive result.
“After a couple of particularly frustrating races with the repeated DNFs and the low point of Montreal, I see this weekend as a restart of the season. The team is now fully operational, between the track and the factory, between the drivers and the engineers, with our technical partners, to make the most out of the package available. We all feel that there is more performance to get out of it, and we must now switch to attack mode to see what we can deliver at tracks that are more suited to the characteristics of our car.”
