Caterham chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne happy after first pre-season test – Formula 1 news
Caterham chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne said that the first pre-season test at Jerez was probably the best first test of his career.
Caterham had poor run in the 2011 season finishing with the bottom teams of the table. Still the team acquired a relatively hefty sum of winnings from the season, which was to be a big motivation for the management to do a better job in the upcoming season.
Caterham launched their latest edition of the car at the end of January and was the only one to show up at the first pre-season test amongst the newer teams. Friday had been a good day of testing as their driver Jarno Trulli successfully completed 117 laps.
Gascoyne was very satisfied with the results and mentioned that he was happy that the team completed its schedule.
“I think we can be very pleased with how the first test has gone,” Gascoyne said. “Apart from an issue on day one with the starter the car ran absolutely faultlessly throughout the whole test which is a real tribute to the work put in by the whole team.
We completed the whole test program, working with KERS for the first time and for me this has probably been the best first test I have ever been involved in throughout my career.”
Trulli talked about the potential of the car and said that they had not pushed the limits of the car yet, and were mainly trying it out to see how it handles and to collect data mainly. The next test to be held in Barcelona is where the team is targeting
to really understand the pace of the car and how it handles.
It was a pleasant sight to see a team from the lower end of the table to come up with a car that did not pose any difficulty for the drivers or the management. Quite a few major teams have had their share of issues during the test. Red Bull, Ferrari, and
McLaren all are not where they would have liked to be in terms of the development or the results of the car.
The second test at Barcelona hopefully will display a better showing of the teams.
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