Sunday: A positive race for the Caterham team
Even though Giedo van der Garde did not see the checkered flag, he was satisfied with his race and the performance of his car thanks to the updates introduced. The same sentiment was echoed by his teammate Charles Pic, who is pleased with the progress made.
Charles Pic – 17th:
I’m really happy with today’s performance. Finishing 17th doesn’t tell the whole story because we finished the race just behind one of the Williams which shows that we made good progress this weekend. The blue flags really didn’t help because without them, I would have had a better chance of passing, but it was still nice to be able to attack in the final laps. The car was pleasant throughout the race, especially after my third stop when we did a final 25-lap stint on the hard tires and I was able to manage degradation well, which meant I could attack until the checkered flag.
It’s good to have a Sunday like that because I wasn’t able to get the most out of the new package on Friday or Saturday, but it was good from the first lap today. There’s still a lot to come from the parts brought here, actually quite a bit, so we’ll work on that at the factory and see what we can extract for the next race in Monaco. So that’ll keep me and the team busy, but seeing today’s pace, there’s more to come from the updates of this 5th race, and the fact that we’ve been strong there [in Monaco] in the past, I think it could be an interesting weekend for us.
Giedo van der Garde – Retirement:
« It is obviously frustrating that my race ended like this today, but sometimes it happens. I got a good start and was fighting with Button and the two Williams in the early stints. The car was nice, really good, and it was clearly my best race of the year. When I came in for my second stop, I could feel there was a problem with the left rear wheel as soon as I rejoined the track. At one point, the wheel came off so I tried to return to my garage to see if I could continue, but once the team was able to look, it was clear that I had to retire.
As I said, it’s frustrating, but it’s a new lesson for me and for the team. Sometimes you don’t have luck, but we have a lot of positives to take from this weekend. The new developments on the car are working well, and we have more to come. Our race pace is really good, enough to fight with some of the cars ahead, and my qualifying performance was the best of the year. We’re heading to Monaco next, a track I know well as I was on the podium twice last year in GP2 and Formula Renault 3.5, so with a good qualifying performance like in Spain, and a race like I had before retiring today, I think we can do well.
