Sunday: Caterham drivers struggling again

Charles Pic – 20th:

Off track, I passed Chilton and was right behind Giedo and Bianchi at the end of the first lap. However, the balance of the car today was the same as the whole weekend, not really there, which meant I couldn’t attack. I was able to stay with my teammate throughout the race, until the penalty in the final laps, but we just didn’t have the pace today to achieve the kind of normal race performance we have seen for most of the season.

We are fortunate to be able to bounce back immediately in Brazil, and we will work hard in the coming days to understand what we need to find settings that allow us to make the most of our package. I achieved my best result of the season in Brazil last year, so our goal is to solve these setup issues and be at our advantage to take advantage of whatever comes our way.

Giedo van der Garde – 19th:

I didn’t get a good start and I was behind Bianchi at the end of the first lap. From there, it was not possible to overtake him because, even though I had a better car throughout the lap, his top speed was better than mine and every time I got closer my front tires started to suffer from graining because the car was understeering a lot. So I couldn’t pass him. Sometimes, it’s like that, you can’t do anything when you’re equally matched.

Despite how the day unfolded, overall, it has been a good week in Austin. The track is great, and the atmosphere in Austin and around the circuit is incredible, but obviously for us, we need a slightly crazier race to have a chance of reclaiming tenth place in the [constructors] championship. So, it’s all going to come down to Brazil. We are ready, we just need to see what happens.