Friday: Caterham drivers suffer from understeer
Three Caterham drivers raced today. Charles Pic completed both practice sessions, while Alexander Rossi and Diego Van der Garde shared the second car. Alexander Rossi, the only American on the F1 grid in 2013, became the first American driver to compete in the US Grand Prix since Speed in 2007. Beyond this event, the day for the Caterham drivers can be summed up in a few words: battling with understeer. In fact, both Pic and Van der Garde complained about the handling of their car.
Alexander Rossi – 19th (Free Practice 1):
I am really happy with how my first free practice session went here. I am proud to have been the first American driver to drive an F1 car here, on the COTA circuit. It’s something I will never forget and I want to thank everyone who supports me for making this possible.
Nevertheless, it’s a shame that the session was shortened due to the issues encountered by the helicopter, but the team worked really hard to give us the opportunity to do many laps and by the end of the session we were able to accomplish almost the entire desired program…
The balance of the car was good from the start. With cool temperatures this morning, we had difficulty warming up the tires, and this was the case during the first two stints. However, it improved in the third stint thanks to the rising temperatures and the adjustments we found. I had quite a bit of understeer, but I believe my time shows that we were quite competitive.
Charles Pic – 21st and 19th:
« We were forced to wait in the pits at the beginning of FP1 which disrupted our plans, but by the end of session 1, I was able to complete 19 laps and ultimately accomplish a large part of the team’s planned program. It didn’t help me much to reduce the understeer I have this weekend, especially since the temperatures were cold. I was never able to really push on a full lap.
In the afternoon, we made some changes to the single-seater and it was immediately better. We were able to work after lunch and make much more progress than in the morning. We started FP2 with hard tires and then moved to soft tires with a bit more downforce on the front wing. I was able to improve on slow and medium-speed corners but I still struggle in fast corners.
For the final long stint, we went out with hard tires and switched to medium tires after 15 laps. They wear out little and seem quite competitive; it was already somewhat the case in Abu Dhabi. In the end, we completed many laps and have a lot of data to analyze for tomorrow with the aim of making progress.
Giedo van der Garde – 20th (Free Practice 2):
« It’s my first time driving here, and I’m happy to be so close to my teammate and to have been able to do so many laps. Since I didn’t participate in the Free Practice 1 session, I had a slightly different program. I did two long stints on hard tires, then a short stint on soft tires, and a final, longer one also on soft tires.
During the first stint, I had a lot of understeer, like Charles during Free Practice 1. We added front downforce which helped us, but during the second stint, the car behaved strangely, really in a way I’ve seen this season. I couldn’t hit the right lines and was happy to switch to softer tires, which allowed me to set my best time. We finished on a long stint, still on softs, but we again suffered from understeer. We will need to analyze this tonight.
