Albers sees Caterham move in the right direction
Even though André Lotterer abandoned on lap two of the Belgian Grand Prix and Marcus Ericsson's last place finish, Caterham team principal Christian Albers finds signs of improvement with the struggling team.
André Lotterer, car #45: “I didn’t even get the chance to sweat unfortunately. I was really looking forward to a good race and I had a good start, but then I went a bit wide at turn 17 and there was a sudden loss of power. The team and Renault will have to investigate this tonight and see what happened. It’s a shame, but I am pleased with my race weekend – I made no mistakes and did a reasonably good job. Of course it would’ve been fantastic to finish the race and do a whole Grand Prix, but it’s still been an amazing weekend. I can go home happy even though it didn’t really end the way I would’ve liked it to.
“I want to thank Caterham F1 Team for this amazing opportunity – it’s been fantastic to experience Formula 1, I got a lot of support and the team has been great. It’s frustrating to have only completed two laps of the race, but this is motorsport and these things happen.”
Marcus Ericsson, car #9: “I did a very decent start but then I was a bit unlucky in the first corner and I didn’t gain any positions. But I got a really good run after Eau Rouge and managed to overtake Chilton at turn 5. After that it was a long race fighting him – he put a lot of pressure on me throughout the whole race and it wasn't easy to keep him behind, even though I managed to do just that for pretty much the whole race. Unfortunately he overtook me with only two laps to go, which was of course very frustrating as it would’ve been nice to beat him.
“With the performance we’ve had this weekend I think we can be satisfied with our race. I’m happy with both the team's and my work and now we just need to work even harder to continue to develop the car and push forward. I feel we have really taken a step forward this weekend here in Belgium and we just need to build on that and keep pushing.”
Christijan Albers: “The team has done a solid job this weekend, we're moving forward. Marcus drove a strong race and was able to fight for positions during all 44 laps. It’s a real shame that André was only able to race for one full lap before retiring – his weekend up until then had been close to perfect and he has certainly provided us with very useful feedback that will help to continue developing the car.
“We have a very busy next two weeks ahead, as we carry on working to bring more updates to the next race in Italy. It’s been a positive start, but now we need to build on this and make sure we get stronger every race. I have total confidence in the team and I know that they are going to give their very best to keep improving the car. We are moving in the right direction.”
Cedrik Staudohar, Renault Sport F1 track support leader: “We had a very smooth race with Marcus and he was ahead of Chilton for a large part of the GP. We tried to give him as much power as possible at the end, but his tyre wear was too high and Max was able to get past. André’s race was very short – his car lost power on the second lap, possibly as a result of running hard over a kerb. We need to look into this tonight in more detail. Overall however it’s been a positive weekend and gives a good basis for the second part of the season going forward."
