Caterham (F1 Preview)

The renamed Caterham is one of the three teams that made their entrance in F1 back in 2010. Although they have still been far from the pace of the midfield teams, last year Team Lotus (now Caterham) managed to cut some of the disadvantage from the frontrunners but also make a clear statement on the differences between itself and Virgin and HRT.

The whole project seems to be better organized and focused towards the improvement. With the help from the investments of Tony Fernandes, the team is becoming more and more professional.

So, as the improvements can be seen, the team’s ambition is also growing. For this year Caterham wants to definitely land on the mid-pack. For that they have kept Heikki Kovalainen and, in a mid-winter season swap, they said farewell to Jarno Trulli and welcomed Vitaly Petrov.

The car has a quite complicated front wing with a fairly high nose, but the rear appears simple and more like old-school Formula 1. 

Caterham has been working on the CT01 since the end of last season, but it says that it had the chassis homologated by Christmas 2011. The car still uses a Renault engine and Red Bull Technology gearbox, and it now has KERS. 

The team believes that it is to its advantage that blown diffusers are banned this year. It has put a majority of its work into aerodynamics for the CT01.

Quotes:

Heikki Kovalainen

“We've clearly moved on from where we started in 2011, and are a long way ahead of where we were in 2010 but we're still all staying very realistic about what we can do this season.”

“Whatever happens when we get there, I just want it all to start right now. I've had a great winter, worked hard and am heading into 2012 feeling fitter than ever. I've made a couple of changes off track that will help me focus even more on my job with the team and with the step forward we've taken with this year's car, I'm more keen than ever to get out on track and see how we've progressed again this year."

Vitaly Petrov

“I think it's pretty clear we won't be in a position to fight for a podium again but I think the goal will be to push the midfield teams as hard as we can.”

“It's still early days, but I've been given a great welcome by everyone and I'm starting to build a good relationship with my engineer, so i think we have a good year ahead of us, whatever happens.”