Friday: The Caterhams seem good in Abu Dhabi
Heikki Kovalainen replaced Giedo van der Garde during the first practice session, and this was beneficial a priori as the Dutch driver found a good car to drive at the start of the second practice session even though everything isn't perfect yet. Charles Pic, on the other hand, struggled to properly set up his car during both sessions, but the Caterham drivers seem confident for the rest of the weekend.
Charles Pic – 19th and 21st:
« During the first free practice, the focus was mainly on changing the fact that the front of the car was very strong, especially in the corners. The aero balance was quite good, but the car was too sharp for me in every stint. Even though we improved the rear, I didn’t have a balance with which I was satisfied during this session.
During free practice 2, the temperatures were obviously lower than during free practice 1, and the balance wasn’t as good as in free practice 1. I struggled to get the front tires up to temperature, so we studied this during the performance run because the conditions in free practice 2 closely resemble those we will have during qualifying. On the stints, the soft tires heated up much faster, the front was easy to warm up, but the balance was still leaning a bit too much towards understeer, particularly on entry and mid-corner. We added more front wing during the long run, but I had issues with getting the front tires up to temperature. Overall, the car was understeering, and I had stability problems under braking, so we will look into this in detail, and the goal is to resolve it for tomorrow.
Heikki Kovalainen – 20th [Free Practice 1]:
« At the beginning, the car was a bit too front-heavy. Under braking and in the corners, it was at the limit and the tires started to degrade quite quickly, which added to the handling problem, but we made some adjustments, and by the third stint of the day, we had made good progress with the balance. The car was quite neutral at the end of the session but the tires were completely worn out by that time, so we weren’t learning much, but overall, it was a good session and it was nice to contribute again this weekend to help the team in Abu Dhabi. »
Giedo van der Garde – 19th [Free Practice 2]:
« I was back in the car during Free Practice 2 and it felt good from the first stint. The rear was locking up a bit too much and the car wasn’t too stable in the fast corners, but overall it was okay. I did several stints with the mediums to start, then switched to the softs for the performance stint and I have to say the car seemed pretty stable. We had a few rear lock-ups and I would have liked a bit more front end, but we made some changes during the stint with the softs and it was good – my fastest lap was good but I know there’s more to come from qualifying, especially if I can improve the front end.
On the long stint, I stayed on softs. The front tires were cooling down significantly, which caused understeer, but they started coming back at the end of the stint. The rear was very consistent throughout the stint, so that gives us interesting strategy options for the race. I didn’t do a long stint on mediums, but Charles did, so we’ll see what his data says tonight and then we can make progress tomorrow.
