New start for Caterham in Melbourne

As this new season approaches, Tony Fernandes, team principal and owner of the Caterham F1 Team, admits he is more excited than ever: « During most of last season, we felt as though we were in no man’s land. We were comfortably ahead of the two teams that debuted at the same time as us, in 2010, and for a large part of the season, we were just a few strides behind the leading teams. The time has come for us to take our place among the teams fighting in the pack, and we have done everything necessary to make it so. »

Caterham hopes to take advantage of the KERS, which it finally has, to achieve its goal of competing with Williams, Sauber, and Toro Rosso: « If we get there, I think it would be an incredible achievement for a team that started from nothing in September 2009, » estimates Fernandes. « If we don’t quite get there at the start of the season, it won’t be for lack of trying, and we will continue to fight throughout the season to close the gap with the pack right in front of us. »

Mark Smith, the technical director of the Malaysian team, states that the CT01 will be equipped with some new features compared to the last Barcelona tests: « In terms of developments, we will have a new front wing and we will have new cooling options. The front wing is just a logical evolution and has been planned in the aerodynamic package for a long time, but will be introduced for the first time in Melbourne. »

On the drivers’ side, Heikki Kovalainen will approach his third season on behalf of the Hingham team more prepared than ever: « I had a great winter, worked hard, and I’m approaching 2012 feeling more prepared than ever. I’ve made some changes off the track that will help me focus more on my work within the team, and with the step forward we are going to take this year, I’m more eager than ever to get back on the track and see how much we’ve progressed. »

The Finn also takes a very positive view of the Malaysian team’s off-season tests: « After three weeks of quite solid testing, we’re heading to Melbourne in good shape. We’ve clearly made progress compared to 2011, and we’re far ahead of where we were in 2010, but we remain realistic about what we can achieve this season. […] Our reliability level has been good, and Vitaly and I have managed to achieve times that show we are close to the desired performances. But as everyone knows, tests don’t tell the whole story about our position relative to others, so we won’t really know anything until Saturday in Melbourne. »

For his part, Vitaly Petrov will return to Melbourne, the circuit that was the scene of his greatest achievement to date in Formula One: « Melbourne is obviously a place that will always be special for me. Last year, I had my first podium in Formula One there, and I received a very warm welcome from all the Australian fans, so I’m sure it will be the same this year. » However, the Russian has since changed teams, and although it has improved compared to its predecessor, the CT01 may not allow him to repeat his performance: « I think the goal will be to push as hard as we can in the pack, and who knows what could happen… Generally, there are a few retirements in Australia, and there are some places that don’t allow for any margin of error, so I hope we’ll be there at the end of the race and that we can take advantage of whatever comes our way. »

Petrov also believes he shouldn’t be too penalized by having only discovered the CT01 late in the off-season: « We spent quite a bit of time in Barcelona figuring out how to optimize the settings for me, and although we will still have a lot of work to do in Australia, we definitely made real progress during the last week of testing, which put me in as good a position as we could have hoped for heading into Melbourne. »