Caterham technical director Mike Gascoyne optimistic for an improved 2012 season – Formula 1 news
Caterham technical director Mike Gascoyne said that the 2012 car will see the team making more progress than it did in the 2011 season.
Caterham has been rebranded in 2012 as it was previously known as Lotus Racing when it debuted in 2010. The team has remained at the bottom of the grid since its debut, finishing at number 10 in both 2010 and 2011 seasons.
Even if their performance was under par, the 10th place finish in both the seasons meant that the team was now eligible for a much larger share of prize money at the season end.
The team bagged a hefty $86 million which is going to be a major help in developing the team into something more significant than it was.
The 2012 edition of their car as per Gascoyne is going to be very impressive and will help the team move up to the midfield teams.
“I think it will be a much more current car than the last two cars we've been able to design,” Gascoyne said. “It's probably a bigger step forward compared to the 2011 car. In 2010 our car was obviously very basic because we didn't have much time to do it
and we always said the 2011 car would be a big step forward. What's exciting for me is that the 2012 car is probably a bigger step forward in terms of refinement of design than we made in 2011 (over 2010).”
The car is going to be using KERS for the 2012 season which is will give further improvement to the car. Gascoyne believes that not having KERS for the 2011 season and still finishing better than Williams was a big achievement for the team. The plan is to
keep that progress but with a much better and strong initiation to the season, which will be a launch pad for the whole season.
It will be interesting to see how well Caterham has improved from their previous showings. The first glimpse of their car will be displayed at the first pre-season test in February along with other team cars.
Tags: