Live from Silverstone with Giedo van der Garde

Hello Giedo, did you leave Team Addax to join Caterham Racing this year? Why? Did you need a new challenge?

First of all, the team was the first to present me with an offer, alongside the Caterham Formula 1 team. We already had a good contract with them as a reserve driver and then they decided to have me join their GP2 team. My role was to help the team build itself up since it was only a year old. We compete in races and fight for good positions, and in the end, we’ll see where we stand. But for me, it was a great opportunity to be close to F1 with Caterham and to be in GP2.

You are only 50 points behind the leader in the standings, do you think you can win the title in GP2?

We are still in the phase of finding the right settings for the car. We made a big step forward in Barcelona, where we won the race, but it’s quite hard. It was tough to work with the team, but in the end, we had a rather good single-seater, not the best, we’re still making some progress, but we’re heading in the right direction. Now, we need to score points. Valencia was a bad weekend; we could have scored 25 points (Van der Garde only scored 4 in the end), but we are only 50 points behind the leaders, and they will also have bad weekends, so we will come back, I am certain of it.

For Silverstone, is your goal to score points, or do you think a victory is possible?

This is not my favorite circuit, and the team struggled a bit here last year, so the goal is to continue scoring points and hopefully we can finish on the podium. I think the car is good in fast sequences so that could help us here but we’ll see as rain is forecast and it’s hard to know what will happen.

Let’s talk a bit about your role as a reserve driver for the Caterham F1 team. What does it involve?

You have to be there, and on a weekend like this, it’s good for me to race because being in the F1 paddock is nice as you learn a lot with the briefings, talking with the engineers and the whole team, it’s really good and it helps a lot. But the fact is that I want to race, to drive, and with GP2, it’s great because I can race and be with the team and we have good results. Moreover, after the GP2 season, I’ll have 5 Fridays where I can drive in F1, so that’s a good thing too.

What is the major difference between a GP2 car and a F1 car?

There’s not such a big difference, obviously an F1 is a bit faster, but an F1 is much more technical. It’s not a unique single-seater like in GP2, and the approach for the driver is different because you have a lot more things to do while driving. You talk with the team, you have all these buttons on the steering wheel, so mentally, it’s a bit more challenging than GP2, but from a driving perspective, it’s a bit easier on the arms because you have power steering. However, it’s harder on the neck.

You drove last year’s Caterham in Dublin and Goodwood and you are going to drive it in Rotterdam, do you enjoy these moments spent in an F1?

Yes, but these events are for fun, for the fans. You have to please them, do some donuts, burnouts, create smoke, and make noise, and that’s enough for the spectators. But from a driving perspective, you don’t really feel the car’s performance because you don’t go faster than 200 km/h, so it’s fun but I’m looking forward to the first Fridays when I’ll be driving.

Do you know when it will be?

Yes, Japan and the ones following, except America because it’s a new circuit.

Are you going to drive in the young driver tests in Abu Dhabi?

I can’t tell you at the moment. I know, but I can’t talk about it.

Will you do any straight-line testing before then?

For the moment, it’s my teammate Rodolfo (Gonzalez) who is doing them. I am really focused on GP2 right now to achieve the best results for myself and the team. Hopefully, we can win more races, score points, and secure some good positions. And we’ll see where we are at the end of the season.

Do you already know what you will do next year, in 2013?

No, we don’t know yet but the goal is to be in Formula 1 with Caterham. We need to show that we can help this team, help it grow, and achieve good results. It will also depend on the tests for young drivers and the Friday practice sessions, how I perform, if I’m fast enough, and we’ll see what happens. Hopefully, then, we’ll have a good contract for next year, that’s the goal.

Are you focusing solely on Caterham, or could you also sign with another team?

You can never tell, for the moment, I am really very happy with Caterham and there is a good group, there are new people coming in, a new factory on the way. So I really hope to be able to race with them next year.

Do you think you can fight for the title in F1?

I don’t know, you have to take things one by one, right? First, I have to win the title (GP2), and if not, at least be in the top 3. Then, next year, Formula 1, but you can’t choose what you want to do and where you want to go.

Is there a team with which you would like to be a champion? Caterham? Another one?

Of course, for the moment, it would be Caterham. But I’ve always had a passion for red cars… it’s the future, we’ll see.

From our special correspondent in Silverstone