Heikki Kovalainen has been impressed with Caterham's gains in recent races, making him more excited for the rest of the season.
Heikki made it into Q2 in Valencia before both he and team mate Vitaly Petrov ran close to the top 10. His race had looked promising before being compromised by a puncture, due to contact with Jean-Eric Vergne. Heikki "cannot wait" for the British Grand Prix, where the team are bringing more big upgrades.
Caterham started life as Lotus Racing in 2010 with the aim of being best of the new teams. After succeeding with this aim in 2010 they moved their attention to the midfield. High expectations were made at the beginning of 2011, as Team Lotus, but they failed to make it onto the midfield pack, being just a few tenths back on average.
In 2012 the team were expecting to make more progress and they have shown truth in this. Kovalainen has made it into Q2 a few times this year and despite having not scored points yet, Heikki is confident their time will come in 2012.
"Honestly, I can't wait to get back in the car and see what we can do at this
year's British Grand Prix," he said. "At the last race in Valencia we clearly
made improvements, enough to help me put the car into Q2 on merit and we have
more upgrades coming for Silverstone. For this race it's important that we carry our qualifying speed and good
reliability through into Sunday as issues like the KERS problem I had in
Valencia impact all the hard work the team is doing at the factory and in the
windtunnel to get us where we want to be. If we can do that I think we can have
another very good weekend and I'm really looking forward to giving our home fans
something to cheer for."
Caterham are the only "new" team to have the KERS unit, helping them extend the distance to Marussia and HRT. Petrov is also confident for the races ahead, explaining that they now think Toro Rosso are firmly in their sights.
The Russian said "As we'll be bringing more new parts to the British Grand Prix I think it's another race where we'll be able to take a step forwards," he explained. "I'm sure everyone else will be bringing upgrades so we need to make sure that we don't just make gains, but we improve more than our nearest rivals.
"That's a big challenge but after seeing the gap to Toro Rosso shrink in Valencia we have a clear target just ahead and that gave the whole team a real boost. Hopefully we'll be able to make similar levels of progress at Silverstone – if we do I think the British Grand Prix could be very interesting. The team made great progress in Valencia and I really hope that we will continue in the same manner at the next race."
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| (c) Octane Photographic |
Caterham started life as Lotus Racing in 2010 with the aim of being best of the new teams. After succeeding with this aim in 2010 they moved their attention to the midfield. High expectations were made at the beginning of 2011, as Team Lotus, but they failed to make it onto the midfield pack, being just a few tenths back on average.
In 2012 the team were expecting to make more progress and they have shown truth in this. Kovalainen has made it into Q2 a few times this year and despite having not scored points yet, Heikki is confident their time will come in 2012.
Caterham are bringing new rear bodywork, a revised exhaust layout and other aerodynamic details to Silverstone for the British GP.
Caterham are the only "new" team to have the KERS unit, helping them extend the distance to Marussia and HRT. Petrov is also confident for the races ahead, explaining that they now think Toro Rosso are firmly in their sights.
The Russian said "As we'll be bringing more new parts to the British Grand Prix I think it's another race where we'll be able to take a step forwards," he explained. "I'm sure everyone else will be bringing upgrades so we need to make sure that we don't just make gains, but we improve more than our nearest rivals.
"That's a big challenge but after seeing the gap to Toro Rosso shrink in Valencia we have a clear target just ahead and that gave the whole team a real boost. Hopefully we'll be able to make similar levels of progress at Silverstone – if we do I think the British Grand Prix could be very interesting. The team made great progress in Valencia and I really hope that we will continue in the same manner at the next race."
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