Pic struggled with his upgraded Caterham in Barcelona

The Caterham team brought a lot of new developments to Barcelona, and it wasn’t easy to manage for Charles Pic, who only drove during the second free practice and experienced balance issues, but he is convinced that things can be improved.

« For now, the car is not optimized. Clearly, the balance we had was not good at all. There have been quite a few changes [on the car], so I think it’s logical that it changes quite a few things. I think we’ll have a good night’s work before tomorrow and we’ll be able to know a bit more tomorrow. There is quite a bit of work [to do], » Pic admitted during a press briefing in Barcelona.

The Frenchman does not want to be alarmist or worry for the moment; even if his single-seater is not optimal, he remains confident: “It’s difficult, even impossible to know where it [the developments] will lead. But there’s no point in worrying, it won’t change anything. We need to try to optimize the car we have, find a good balance, for now, we were very far from it today.”

The Caterham driver knows that the tires will play a role in the race and that it will be necessary to try to conserve them. He shared part of the recipe on how to do it: « Specifically, there are types of corners that are harder on the tires than others. During the race, it’s beneficial to be a bit less aggressive. There are corners [the fast ones] that need to be sacrificed because you don’t necessarily lose much time by sacrificing them, but you preserve a lot of the tires, so the compromise is good. But conversely, there are corners where if you sacrifice them, you lose a lot of time and don’t preserve your tires, so the compromise is not good. »

With his “new” single-seater, Charles Pic has a simple goal for this weekend: to be ahead of the Marussia.

From our special correspondent in Barcelona