Saturday: The different developments make the difference at Caterham

Giedo van der Garde – 22nd and 19th [18th on the grid]:

I am of course really satisfied with how the day went, both with free practice 3 and qualifying. We made some changes to the car overnight to try to find a balance with the new parts, and it really worked well. I’m not using the same package as my teammate here – I have a good part of the new package except for the new front wing, so we went in a slightly different direction from Charles with the settings, and even though I didn’t have a really fast lap in Q3, I could feel we were going in the right direction. In qualifying, it came together, and on my second run, I had a clear out-lap, the tires were working well, so it was a very good run to achieve my best qualifying since the start of the season.

Days like today show that my learning curve continues to rise. I work better with the engineers in each track session, and they always find more to help me get the most out of the car. This is the kind of performance I was aiming for when I got the new parts on the car, so I’m really happy for myself, the whole team, and everyone who supported me so we could deliver what we did today. There’s more to come in the race tomorrow and with the new parts throughout the rest of the year, and it’s a great way to start the European season.

Charles Pic – 19th and 22nd:

« It has been a bit difficult since the start of the weekend. We put some new parts on the car and tried several options in terms of settings to get the most out of it and have a balance that I can use, but it hasn’t worked yet. Free practice 3 was good, I didn’t have a completely clear lap, so we knew there was still a bit of time to gain after this session, but in qualifying, I felt like the car wasn’t working as well as this morning. I don’t really know why, but we’re going to analyze the data and see if we can do something for tomorrow. »