Practice report
Formula 1 German GP
Friday practice at Hockenheim: Caterham improves since last race
Marcus Ericsson: "I think we may make a bit of progress this weekend, something we’ve all been waiting for.”
Edited: Jul 18, 2014, 8:32 PM
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Marcus Ericsson - car #9, chassis CT05-#01
FP1: 1.23.256, 21st
FP2: 1.21.870, 20th
“I was running a different setup to Kamui in FP1 and I have to say the overall balance was ok right from the first run. I was losing quite a bit of time in the last sector with the car switching from oversteer to understeer but we improved the aero balance and mechanical setup and by the final run it was more consistent.
“In FP2 I went out straight away and was into my second flying lap when I was told there was an oil pressure issue and I had to stop the car. I was back in the pit quickly, as was my car, and the guys did a really good job to get me back out again with about 35 minutes left in the session. We managed to complete a performance run and then go onto the long run so even though we lost time we still managed to get quite a bit of the plan done.
“Obviously we wanted more laps but overall the car felt like it had improved since Silverstone. I think some of the changes we’ve made here suit my driving style better - we’ll find out more tonight with the data and tomorrow on track in FP3, but right now I can’t wait to get back in the car tomorrow and start again as I think we may make a bit of progress this weekend, something we’ve all been waiting for.”
Kamui Kobayashi - car #10, chassis CT05-#02
FP1: 1.22.572, 19th
FP2: 1.23.728, 21st
“FP1 was a good session for me, certainly better than I’ve had for a few races and with good reliability we were able to complete the whole program. The car was understeering too much so we tried a couple of different setup options to help deal with that, but it was definitely improving by the end of the session.
“In FP2 we went out for the first run early and completed ten laps. The car balance felt much better with the changes we made over lunch but it immediately felt like it was down on power, it just felt strange. We made a couple more mechanical changes and went back out for run two but at the end of the second lap I lost any braking power and could smell burning. I pulled over in turn 16 as the rear of the car was by then on fire and ran to grab and extinguisher so I could help to put the fire out, but that was obviously the end of the session. It looks like it was a fuel leak that started the fire but we need more time tonight to find out exactly why that happened and then fix it.
“Despite how FP2 went I’m still pleased with how the car felt today, especially in the first run I did in the afternoon. If we can have more solid reliability I think we could have a better weekend than we’ve had for a while – now everyone will work as hard as possible tonight to help us do just that.”
Cedrik Staudohar, Renault Sport F1 track support leader: “A difficult day for us. We had to manage some settings in FP1 that cost a bit of performance, but by the end of the session we were on top of everything and ready to tackle FP2. Unfortunately we then had two issues in the afternoon. The oil pressure was drifting on Marcus’ car and we stopped him on track to prevent any damage. When we recovered the car we checked everything over and it looked OK so he could go out again and run through most of his programme. On Kamui’s car there was a fuel leak that caught fire, but for now we don’t know its origin. Clearly we have a lot of work for tomorrow but we’re confident we’ll be back on form.”
Caterham F1 Team
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