Friday: At Caterham, Kobayashi without major problems, Ericsson a bit slow
The Malaysian team had a fairly quiet Friday. Both drivers were able to complete their program despite some tire issues for Kobayashi.
Kamui Kobayashi (No. 10) – 17th and 21st
In FP1, the Japanese driver worked on heating up the tires, as the Chinese track was the coldest since the beginning of the season. He was satisfied with the behavior of his car but had to end his session prematurely due to a tire problem: « The balance of the car was good but we had some issues with front wheel locking and during my third run, I had a flat spot on the front-left down to the tire carcass, so after discussing with Pirelli, we decided to stop the session after 16 laps because it was becoming dangerous to continue with this set. »
He was able to continue his program normally despite some cockpit issues that should be fixed by tomorrow: After some changes for the second run in FP2, I felt an improvement, still a bit of oversteer but a step in the right direction. We followed our traditional Friday plan by going through the options before finishing with the long runs. The last stint was fine – the degradation level of both tire types was reasonable. He will need to analyze the collected data to make further progress during the final practice session.
Marcus Ericsson (No. 9) – 21st and 22nd
During the first free practice session, the Swedish driver managed to complete 22 laps, achieving most of what was planned. Like his teammate, he encountered oversteer issues that were improved before conducting some aerodynamic tests.
Then he worked on the tires: « Before switching to mediums for the last half hour, we tried the softs to test the performance, but I couldn’t get a clear lap, and my fastest lap is far from what the car can offer. »
He thinks he’ll be faster tomorrow: « We had two or three new procedures that didn’t work, and we will change them for tomorrow, and I’m sure we can save a lot of time in FP3 and in qualifying. »
