Giedo van der Garde is looking for Caterham to "maintain the gap" to rivals Marussia at the next round in India.
After a short break, F1 will head off to the Buddh International Circuit for the fifth double-header of the season.
The Dutchman had a poor Japanese Grand Prix after crashing out on the first lap. Discussing the incident he said: "Japan obviously ended a whole lot earlier than planned and we’ve looked at all the data from the first lap off I had after the contact with Jules - when I hit the barrier the impact registered around 20g which is by quite a long way one of the biggest accidents I’ve had in my career."
He added: "It just shows how far F1 safety has come that I was out of the car and back in the team’s hospitality unit within about 20 minutes and when I looked at the shots after the race I realised that it was, honestly, quite a lot of a bigger shunt than it had felt like in the car."
Looking ahead to India and round 16, he is hoping that Caterham can continue to maintain the gap to Marussia as they attempt to reclaim 10th in the constructor's standings: "So, on to India and another track I tried for the first time last year in FP1. It’s a proper drivers track, one that has elevation changes and a few really challenging corners and there’s a couple of overtaking opportunities, especially turn four at the end of the long straight.
"It’s going to be hot and hotter track conditions have suited us all year so the aim is to maintain the gap to our nearest competitors throughout the weekend and get back to fighting cars ahead on Sunday afternoon, putting ourselves in a position to take advantage of anything that happens up ahead."
Team-mate Charles Pic is a fan of the circuit, which is situated in Greater Noida. Discussing the up-coming race he said: "I raced for the first time in India last year and, like most of the drivers have said, it’s a great track, one of the best of the modern era. I had a strong race there in 2012, particularly at the start where I made up five places, so the aim is obviously to do the same again in 2013 and keep pushing the teams ahead where we can.
"The track itself is a good mix of a few quick bits, especially into turn five and through ten and eleven for example, and a bit more stop / start like turns one, two and three, but the main thing is to find a good rhythm around the whole lap to get the most out of the car, like Spa for example. As the track evolves so much over the weekend you don’t really find the quickest pace until qualifying and then the race itself as the track is so dusty on Friday, and then again on Saturday morning. They did make some improvements last year to help manage that, including washing the track each evening, so hopefully it will be better again this year."
Caterham currently occupy 11th in the constructor's standings. They need a 13th place finish to take 10th from rivals Marussia and will be hoping for some unpredictable races with high attrition rates before the end of the year.
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| (c) Octane Photographic |
The Dutchman had a poor Japanese Grand Prix after crashing out on the first lap. Discussing the incident he said: "Japan obviously ended a whole lot earlier than planned and we’ve looked at all the data from the first lap off I had after the contact with Jules - when I hit the barrier the impact registered around 20g which is by quite a long way one of the biggest accidents I’ve had in my career."
He added: "It just shows how far F1 safety has come that I was out of the car and back in the team’s hospitality unit within about 20 minutes and when I looked at the shots after the race I realised that it was, honestly, quite a lot of a bigger shunt than it had felt like in the car."
Looking ahead to India and round 16, he is hoping that Caterham can continue to maintain the gap to Marussia as they attempt to reclaim 10th in the constructor's standings: "So, on to India and another track I tried for the first time last year in FP1. It’s a proper drivers track, one that has elevation changes and a few really challenging corners and there’s a couple of overtaking opportunities, especially turn four at the end of the long straight.
"It’s going to be hot and hotter track conditions have suited us all year so the aim is to maintain the gap to our nearest competitors throughout the weekend and get back to fighting cars ahead on Sunday afternoon, putting ourselves in a position to take advantage of anything that happens up ahead."
Team-mate Charles Pic is a fan of the circuit, which is situated in Greater Noida. Discussing the up-coming race he said: "I raced for the first time in India last year and, like most of the drivers have said, it’s a great track, one of the best of the modern era. I had a strong race there in 2012, particularly at the start where I made up five places, so the aim is obviously to do the same again in 2013 and keep pushing the teams ahead where we can.
"The track itself is a good mix of a few quick bits, especially into turn five and through ten and eleven for example, and a bit more stop / start like turns one, two and three, but the main thing is to find a good rhythm around the whole lap to get the most out of the car, like Spa for example. As the track evolves so much over the weekend you don’t really find the quickest pace until qualifying and then the race itself as the track is so dusty on Friday, and then again on Saturday morning. They did make some improvements last year to help manage that, including washing the track each evening, so hopefully it will be better again this year."
Caterham currently occupy 11th in the constructor's standings. They need a 13th place finish to take 10th from rivals Marussia and will be hoping for some unpredictable races with high attrition rates before the end of the year.
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