Friday: Good start to the weekend for Caterham and van der Garde

Charles Pic – 21st and 21st

« Everything was fine with the car after the installation lap, the track conditions were not great after the start but we expected that. After the usual checks, we completed our first stint and the car worked well right away. There was a bit of understeer, especially in the fast corners and a bit less in the slow corners, but it wasn’t too bad.

We saw the appearance of issues in the data at the start of stints 2 and 3, so I immediately came back in for the guys to fix it. We didn’t lose too much time because it was quickly resolved, and we were able to complete the planned program with a final stint of eight laps.

During the lunch break, we made several mechanical changes and the car’s performance in a straight line seemed better, but we still didn’t have enough front grip and needed to improve braking stability to really start pushing. The second stint was done on soft tires, but we didn’t really make progress. Honestly, it was a bit strange because we didn’t have grip with the soft tires – there was less understeer in the slow corners, but not in the medium and fast ones, so we’ll have to study the data tonight to really understand what’s happening.

For the last hour of the session, we went out again on mediums for a long stint. The pace was good and the degradation as well, but since the softs didn’t work well in the second stint, we spent most of the rest of the session with them, switching to softs a few minutes from the end as we already had a clear idea of their behavior for Saturday and Sunday.

We have work to do tonight to find the rhythm that’s in the car here – throughout the season, we’ve done well in free practice 3 and qualifying so the goal is more or less the same for tomorrow, and then continue like this for Sunday.

Giedo van der Garde – 19th and 19th:

« This has been one of my best Fridays of the year – I drove in free practice 1 here last year, so the track was familiar to me right from the installation lap, and the balance was good right away in the first stint. There was a bit of understeer in the fast sections between turn 10 and 11, but it was a positive start to the session.

The sensations were the same in the second stint – still a good balance, and as the track improved, I could really start to attack on a full lap. It’s nice when the car is like this from the start of the day on Friday, and even though we had a slight issue with the rear brake temperature going beyond what we wanted, everything was fine. We stuck to our plan and made a few adjustments to improve the aero balance in the last stint, and by the end of the session, I think we made good progress.

Free practice 2 started the same way – the car seemed to keep improving and during my first stint in the afternoon, I found an extra half second. There was still a bit of understeer in turn 10 but the wind had changed compared to this morning and it was noticeable on entry, but overall, I was comfortable. We fitted the soft tires for the second afternoon stint, but I encountered traffic on my first lap and couldn’t get the most out of that run, especially in turns 8 and 9.

We executed the planned run for the second free practice by ending with a long stint, starting on mediums. They were consistent throughout the stint, which is good for Sunday, but the softs don’t seem to be effective for more than a few laps here. Now, it’s a normal end of Friday to prepare everything for tomorrow and Sunday, and after a good day like this, I think it could be a good weekend for us.