Sunday: Caterham drivers rather satisfied

Charles Pic – 16th:

« This wasn’t too bad a race for us. Obviously, we would have preferred to finish a bit higher, but I think at this stage of the season, it reflects our current performance level well.

We started with the super softs, and our pace was good in the first stint, but the tires fell off very quickly. In comparison, when we switched to the mediums, the degradation levels were very good, so we were able to have a longer second stint than expected, which gave us a chance to fight. Unfortunately, towards the end of the race, we had a KERS issue that made us lose some pace and prevented us from taking advantage of the good performance of the mediums.

We know that things are going to be quite similar to today during the first races, so with what we have planned, it will be a very interesting season. We have a few small details we need to work on for the next race, but it’s good to have already had a great battle, good for the team and the fans, so we will see how it evolves.

Giedo van der Garde – 18th:

« For me, it has been a good start to my career in Formula 1. It was really important to finish my first race and that’s exactly what I achieved, so I’m happy about it.

I started the race on super softs, passed a few drivers at the first corner, and was able to stay with Bianchi until the first stint, even with the degradation of the super softs. Unfortunately, I had a slow puncture on my first set of mediums, which cost me time and positions. We had to pit earlier than planned to switch to a new set of mediums, and this altered our strategy, but it was a good experience for me.

I have said throughout the pre-season that the first races are a chance for me to learn and today was a good day in that sense. I feel good physically and now have a lot of information on tire wear and how to manage it. So we will bring that to next week’s race in Malaysia and see what we can do for our first home race of the season.